SSI News
Angara 1.2 launches mystery small reconnaissance satellite for Russian military thought to be an MKA-R class
An Angara 1.2 small Russian launch vehicle was launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia at 1955 GMT on 15 October 2022. The vehicle was carrying Cosmos 2560 (Kosmos 2560), a classified Russian military satellite. The satelliite is thought to be the fourth...
Falcon 9 launches towards GEO again – this time carrying Hotbird 13F for Eutelsat
Having previously launched Galaxy 33 and 34 on towards their geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) final positions the week before, this time SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 from Cape Canaveral, Florida USA at 0522 GMT on 15 October 2022 carrying...
Surprise Chinese Long March 2C launch places HJ-2E SAR satellite into LEO
At 2253 GMT on 12 October China conducted a Long March 2C/3 (CZ-2C/3) launch that was a surprise to many Western observers. The mission from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Northern China carried the HJ-2E (Huanjing Jianzai 2E) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)...
First Vulcan launch is delayed again but it gets more payloads for its “risky” maiden flight
The development of the Vulcan Centaur rocket by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) is a long running saga. So there was no surprise when ULA CEO Tory Bruno announced that it has been delayed again, this time to the first quarter 2023. Again, the cause is delays to the...
Angosat-2 is dropped off just above GEO by Proton-M launch using Blok DM-03 upper stage
A Proton M/Blok DM-03 launched the AngoSat 2 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam, Kazahkstan on 12 October at 1500 GMT. The launch was for the Angolan National Space Programme Office which owns the satellite. The Russian-built AngoSat 2 satellite...
NASA DART asteroid strike mission wows scientists with its kinetic results
The NASA DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) experimental asteroid collision mission has been declared a major scientific success. This was after telescopes on Earth ascertained that the orbit of the 160-metre-wide asteroid, Dimorphos, had been significantly...
Late movie review: Ad Astra’s tense “Apocalypse Now” odyssey to Neptune similarly disappoints on arrival
Since joining the Slingshot Aerospace empire we at Seradata have become more used to its salute/entreaty: "Ad Astra!". So it seemed only right that, having missed it during the pandemic, we belatedly review the space exploration set movie under that name. There have...
Epsilon rocket loses eight satellites in launch failure
An Epsilon-2 Adv CLPS rocket was launched from Uchinoura, Kagoshima, Japan, at 0050 GMT on 12 October 2022, but failed to achieve orbit after its second stage was detected to have a fault during flight. When it became apparent that orbit would not be achieved, the...
Exotrail wins CNES contract for two orbital demonstration missions
French start-up Exotrail has won a contract with the French Space Agency CNES for two orbital demonstration missions. The first mission is planned for 2024 and will involve a demonstration of Exotrail's on-orbit transfer vehicle, dubbed SpaceVan, to show off its...
After one month in limbo CAPSTONE lunar mission is recovered
After being in a slow spin for nearly a month, NASA's CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) mission to the Moon was confirmed as being recovered to full three axis control on 7 October. Advanced Space, which...
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