Crewed Soyuz MS-17 launches and docks with International Space Station in just over three hours
The Soyuz MS-17 crewed mission to the International Space Station was launched by a Soyuz 2.1a from the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam in Kazakstan at 0545 GMT on 14 October. On board were NASA astronaut, Kate Rubins and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and...
IAC 2020 Online: Highlight & GNF lectures show China’s Chang’e 4 success and hopes for NASA Artemis lunar plan
While the Chinese Chang'e 4 programme's design team bathed in the success of winning their gong from the IAC (Wu Wieren, Yu Dengyun and Sun Zezhou, were awarded the prestigious IAC's World Space Award medal), the highlight lecture presented by Dr. Yu Dengyun of the...
Blue Origin New Shepard completes 13th sub-orbital launch, first in 2020
Lifting-off from the Van Horn facility, Texas, at 1335 GMT 13 October a Blue Origin New Shepard booster completed its seventh consecutive mission. Whilst this flight was the seventh for this booster in particular, it marks the thirteenth overall for the "New Shepard...
IAC 2020 Online: Space Agency chiefs note Covid-19 problems and solutions…and their space cooperation attempts
At the Heads of Space Agency online plenary at the International Astronautical Congress IAC 2020, Jim Bridenstine, NASA's Administrator, started his presentation with the quote that "Competition is a driver, collaboration is an enabler." He explained that by...
Mystery NRO-108 mission gets launch order for SpaceX Falcon 9 launch in October
According to spaceflightnow.com the US Space Force on behalf of the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has booked a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch to take place from the Cape Canaveral launch site in Florida on 25 October or soon afterwards. The launch had not been...
Gaofen-13 GEO Earth Observation satellite is launched by Long March 3B
A Long March 3B-G3 (CZ-3B/G3) launch vehicle successfully launched itself from the Xichang launch site in China at 1657 GMT on 11 October 2020. The Gaofen-13 spacecraft carried on the flight is an Earth Observation satellite which has been surprisingly been launched...
Twelfth operational Starlink mission finally launched after several delays
Launching at 1129 GMT on 6 October from Cape Canaveral, USA, a SpaceX mission carrying the 12th operational batch of 60 Starlink satellites reached LEO. The mission utilised the company's Falcon 9 launch vehicle, and made use of a first-stage for the third time. This...
US SDA awards contracts to SpaceX and L3 Harris for new missile warning and tracking satellites
The Space Development Agency (SDA), USA, on 5 October announced it had awarded satellite development contracts to two companies. The contracts cover the inaugural, "Tranche 0", satellites for a planned missile warning and tracking constellation. US companies SpaceX...
US launch vehicles suffer sea of stand-downs & aborts…but Antares launched Cygnus NG-14 OK
In what has been a very strange period for launch delays, multiple US government and commercial satellite launches have been affected by a series of aborts, stand-downs and delays. However, one happened in good time. Having suffered a weather related delay on 30...
NASA awards launch contract for its IMAP mission to SpaceX
NASA has awarded a launch contract for its Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission to SpaceX for Falcon 9 launch in 2024. The mission will also carry four secondary payload satellites. The value of the contract covering launch from Cape Canaveral,...
