Perseverance rover’s drone helicopter aptly named Ingenuity spreads its wings/rotors ready for its first flight
NASA Mars rover Perseverance gently drops its drone helicopter Ingenuity to the ground. A full flight test of the drone is due to take place in April - probably around 8 April. This will become the first aircraft to have worked extra-terrestrially excepting the...
HydroGNSS construction order goes to SSTL as ESA Scout mission
ESA has selected SSTL to build and operate a 40 kg spacecraft for its HydroGNSS mission under its Scout programme. The €30 million HydroGNSS mission uses GNSS Reflectometry for hydrological measurements. In effect it uses signals from GPS and Galileo, as radar...
Newspace launcher activity: Rocket Lab multi-launch contract, ABL Series B funding
On 25 March 2021 BlackSky Global, through its launch services provider Spaceflight Inc., signed a multi-launch contract with Rocket Lab covering nine of its Earth observation satellites. As per the contract Rocket Lab will conduct at least five Electron missions...
Airbus lands first commercial GEO contract in Japan from Sky Perfect JSAT
European satellite manufacturer Airbus DS has been selected by Japanese satellite operator Sky Perfect JSAT Corp to build its Superbird-9 satellite. The contract was awarded on 25 March 2021. Airbus will provide Sky Perfect JSAT with one of its new digitally...
UK launch providers Orbex and Skyrora get £8.5 million boost from ESA
Nascent Scotland-based small launch providers Orbex and Skyrora,have received £8.5 million IN funding under the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Boost! initiative to develop their launch technologies and help bring their rockets to operational status. Orbex, an orbital...
First OneWeb launch of 2021 carried out as planned to make up for lost time
Arianespace, through its Russian joint venture Starsem, has launched a Soyuz 2-1B/Fregat M vehicle carrying 36 OneWeb satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO). The mission lifted off at 0247 GMT on 25 March 2021 from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Siberia, Russia, and...
SpaceX carries out fourth Starlink mission of March and orbits 60 more satellites
At 0828 GMT on 24 March SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 vehicle carrying 60 STARLINK satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, USA. The Launch vehicle first-stage successfully landed on the drone barge Of Course I Still Love You at 0836 GMT...
Rocket Lab Electron launches six satellites and then turns upper stage into a seventh
On a launch dubbed "They go up so fast" Rocket Lab successfully launched one of its Electron launch vehicles at 2230 GMT on 22 March from Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand. The satellites carried on the launch were Blacksky Global-9, Centauri III, Gunsmoke-J 1, Myriota 7,...
Eutelsat order satellite from Airbus to ensure continuity of service from 36 East
Eutelsat has announced (22 March) an order for a new GEO satellite, Eutelsat 36D, from Airbus Defence and Space (Airbus DS). This satellite is intended to replace and provide service continuity for Eutelsat 36B located at 36 degrees East. Eutelsat considers this one...
Soyuz 2-1a/Fregat launches 38 satellites including CAS500-1 remote sensing sat and ELSA-d debris removal technology mission
After a technical delay two days previously, a Soyuz 2-1a/Fregat rocket lifted off from the Baikonour Cosmodrome near Tyuratam in Kazakhstan, at 0607 GMT on 22 March. The rocket carried the white and blue livery of the launch provider, GK Launch Services. While some...
