Ariane 5 ECA successfully launches GSAT-11 comsat for India and GEO KOMPSAT-2A weather sat for South Korea
The Ariane 5-ECA roared off its launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana at 2037 GMT on 4 December 2018. The launch carried two satellites: GSAT 11 and GEO-KOMPSAT 2A. Installed as the Ariane 5 ECA’s upper passenger, GSAT-11 is an operational telecommunication satellite...
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The Indian Space Programme is worth it says historian Gurbir Singh but even he has doubts about its manned programme
After writing his latest book on the subject, during November, space historian and author, Gurbir Singh, presented a precis lecture at the British Interplanetary Society detailing the history of the Indian Space Programme. Singh showed how modern space science...
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Crew launches to ISS via Soyuz FG rockets resume
While the Soyuz rocket has already flown in unmanned condition several times since its failure to put the Soyuz MS-10 crew into orbit earlier this year (the crew escaped safely), it had yet to fly humans since. This has now changed. A Soyuz FG successfully launched a...
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Late News: Rockot launch carries three “Rodnik” satellites into orbit
At 0227 GMT on 30 November 2018, a Russian military launch of three "Rodnik-S" satellites took place aboard a Rockot launch vehicle flying out of Plestetsk. Rodnik class spacecraft are small 225kg "store-forward" communications satellites used by the Russian...
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On a Sadder Note: Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush passes away
At the end of November there was yet another sign that the World War II veterans are becoming an endangered species. Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, who bravely served as a torpedo bomber aviator in the US Navy and who was even shot down, has passed away at...
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UK loses its space minister over Brexit agreement after UK decides to build own navsat system
Having had its space companies barred by the European Commission from working on the EU Galileo navigation system after Brexit, the UK has decided to forge ahead with its own new satellite navigation system. In doing so, it was confirmed by Prime Minister Theresa May...
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PSLV makes multi-satellite launch
The Indian launch vehicle PSLV has made another successful launch from the Satish Dhawan Launch Centre, Sriharikota, India, at 0427 GMT on 29 November 2018. The rocket's main payload was HYSIS (Hyper-Spectral Imaging Satellite) for ISRO. There were 30 other...
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FCC approves new SpaceX 7,500 V-band satellite constellation in addition to three smaller constellations from Telesat, Kepler and LeoSat
During November, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the applications of four large-scale communications satellite constellations in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which will total more than 8,000 satellites if fully implemented. Of these, the SpaceX...
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NASA celebrates the landing success of its Mars InSight mission
At 2101 GMT on 27 November 2018, via UHF signals converted to X-band signals on two released Mars Cube One (MarCO A and B) data relay spacecraft and via the Deep Space Network on Earth, it was confirmed to NASA engineers, at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, that...
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On a lighter note: NASA looks at styles of work in commercial crew suppliers – so it might be time to tidy your desk and stop sucking mints
We joked a month or two ago that some would be wondering what Elon Musk had been smoking when they found out that the latest BFS (now called Starship) design had been deliberately changed to make it look more like Tintin’s rocket ship. Now NASA is apparently doing the...
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