SSI News
NASA goes Nuclear Thermal as it plans to launch engine on DARPA’s DRACO project test mission in 2027
Nuclear Thermal rocket propulsion has been mooted since the 1960s. The idea is to use nuclear power to heat rocket propellants so that the Specific Impulse – the efficiency measure of how much “push” you get per kilo of propellants – is more than doubled compared with...
Rocket Lab’s Electron KS rocket performs another successful launch – this time from the US East Coast
After another day's delay due to bad weather, a Rocket Lab Electron KS rocket successfully launched three 30 kg Hawk satellites (Hawk 6A, 6B and 6C) into a 550 km low Earth orbit as part of the HawkEye 360 commercial radio frequency analysis constellation from the Mid...
First ISS spacewalk for 2023 completed
On 20 January 2023 JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata and NASA astronaut Nicole Mann opened the Quest airlock hatch at 1312 GMT. The astronauts switched their spacesuits to internal battery power to begin their spacewalk at 1314 GMT. Their objective was to install another...
SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Starlink Group 2-4 from Vandenberg
At 1543 GMT on 19 January a SpaceX Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 rocket conducted its first Starlink mission of 2023. The rocket lifted-off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, carrying 51 communications satellites into LEO (low Earth orbit) as the Group 2-4....
SpaceX deploys GPS satellite for US Space Force
SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 from Cape Canaveral, USA at 1224 GMT on 18 January. The vehicle was carrying GPS III-6, the sixth satellite of a line of next-generation Global Positioning Satellites for the United States Space Force (USSF). The...
APSTAR 6E orbit raising is slowed after faults stymy use of main kick motor engine
The APT Satellite Holdings-owned APSTAR 6E HTS communications satellite, which was placed into an initial orbit by a Chinese Long March 2C/3 (CZ-2C/3) rocket on 12 January, has reportedly run into problems. The launch, from the Xichang site, was unusual in that it...
China deploys 14 satellites on Long March-2D rocket
The Chinese sent 14 new satellites into orbit on a Long March-2D/2 (CZ-2D/2) rocket at 0314 GMT on 15 January. The launch took place from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the Shanxi Province of north China. Among the 14 satellites were high-resolution optical...
Falcon Heavy launches USSF-67 two satellite payload on way to GEO with its two boosters landed for future launches (Corrected)
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy Block 5 (px) rocket successfully lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA at 2256 GMT on 15 January 2023. Aboard the flight dubbed USSF-66 for the US Space Force were two military spacecraft heading to an initial parking orbit, and then...
Events on International Space Station: Dragon CRS-26 departs as do some cubesats
Events on the International Space Station have been more muted after the excitement of the Soyuz MS-22 coolant leak. On 6 January three cubesats were released. SURYASAT-1, OPTIMAL-1 and HSKSAT-1 which were carried on the J-SSOD #24 deployer and was extracted from the...
Long March 2D launches Yaogan-37 remote sensing sat plus Shiyan-22A &-22B technology test types – this time logged on right launch
A Long March 2D (CZ-2D) rocket lifted off from Jiuquan at 0700 GMT on 13 January 2023. Aboard were three satellites. The primary payload was the Yaogan-37 remote sensing satellite. The other satellites aboard were Shiyan-22A and Shiyan-22B which are thought to have a...
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