SSI News
Artemis I Orion returns from its lunar test flight using a “Zond-like” skip re-entry to achieve a safe splashdown
After a 25½ day journey to the Moon and back, NASA’s Artemis I mission Orion spacecraft successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja California, at 1740 GMT on 11 December. In doing so, it tested out the guidance and thermal protection systems...
SLD lunar lander competition: Blue Origin-led National Team has Boeing replacing Northrop Grumman which joins competitor Dynetics
Having previously lost the original Human Landing System (HLS) contract to SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has announced a new "National Team" to build a second lunar lander. in the new "National Team" Boeing replaces Northrop Grumman. Northrop Grumman has now teamed...
Kuaizhou-11 returns to operational status with launch of Xingyun Jiaotong VDES
Kuaizhou-11 (KZ-11) returned to flight at 01:15 GMT on 7 December 2022 from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. KZ11 successfully sent the traffic management satellite Xingyun Jiaotong VDES aka Jiaotong VDES to orbit. It carries AIS tracking and VDES data relay...
SpaceX moots Starshield defence applications for its Starlink constellation
While the primary purpose of the SpaceX Starlink large low Earth orbit satellite constellation is a commercial communications service, as has been seen in Ukraine, it has a significant military application. And so SpaceX is now pivoting towards this as it hopes to...
Shenzhou 14 undocks from the Chinese Space Station before its crew’s safe return to Earth
On 4 December 2022 Shenzhou 14 with its three taikonauts (Chinese astronauts) Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe, aboard, left the Chinese Space Station (CSS), undocking from the Tianhe core module's nadir port of the at 0430 GMT. The taikonauts had been onboard the...
Spacewalking astronauts install an International Space Station roll-out solar array
On 3 December 2022 Flight Engineers Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio opened the hatch for a spacewalk at 1216 GMT to set about their primary objective to install an International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA). This will augment power generation for the 3A...
Eutelsat orders software defined GEO sat from Thales with an eye to future interoperability with OneWeb in LEO
Thales Alenia Space (TAS) announced, on 1 December, that it had received an order for a software-defined satellite from Eutelsat. The satellite, known as Flexsat, is being built with an eye to GEO-LEO connectivity ahead of the expected Eutelsat/OneWeb merger. It will...
Soyuz 2-1B rocket puts suspected signals intelligence sat Cosmos 2565 into orbit
A Russian Soyuz-2.1b rocket has put the Cosmos 2564 (Kosmos 2565) satellite into orbit. The codename indicates a military launch from the Plesetsk launch site at 2110 GMT on 30 November 2022. Lift off was at Given the likely intended final 900 km circular orbit (the...
Arianespace wins orders for five Vega-C missions to carry Copernicus satellites and a dual Ariane 6 launch for Intelsat
Rounding off November with an impressive haul, European launch provider Arianespace has announced seven orders for its launch vehicles. The first five came from the European Commission in support of the European Copernicus earth observation programme. The remaining...
Upcoming American in-orbit servicer Starfish Space contracts with launch arranger to get its demonstrator into orbit
On 9 November Starfish Space an American newspace company contracted with Launcher a compatriot to carry its first demonstration satellite into orbit. Launcher will utilise its Orbiter OTV which has been manifested on a SpaceX Transporter mission planned for Summer...
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