SSI News
Russia builds and launches Khayyam spy satellite for Iran plus 16 cubesats onboard Soyuz 2-1B Fregat (corrected)
Russia successfully launched a Soyuz 2-1B Fregat from their Baikonur Cosmodrome site at 0552 GMT on 9 August. The launch's main payload was Khayyam, a Russian-built Earth-observation/reconnaissance satellite built for Iran. Khayyam (aka Project 505) will be used by...
Chinese Ceres-1 rocket flies successfully again on third flight
Galactic Energy of China launched the third Ceres-1 (aka Gushenxing-1) solid rocket four-stage launch vehicle successfully with its lift off from Jiuquan launch site taking place at 0411 GMT on 9 August. The flight carried the Taijing-1 01 and Taijing-1 02 optical...
Firefly to help build Antares 330 stage after Russian engine supply halted
Northrop Grumman Corporation and launch vehicle manufacturer Firefly Aerospace have joined forces to provide an American-built first-stage upgrade for the Antares 330 rocket, so it is no longer reliant on Russian-built RD-181 engines. The Antares 330 will use seven of...
India’s quick response SSLV small launch vehicle fails on first mission
The maiden flight of India’s latest rocket, the SSLV, has gone wrong. After an apparently successful launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, in Sriharikota, at 0348 GMT on 07 August, things began to unravel. The rocket’s upper stage and payloads (which appeared to...
China launches carbon monitoring environmental satellite
China successfully launched a Long March 4B (CZ-4B) rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 0308 GMT on 4 August. The mission carried three satellites, of which the primary one was the environmental monitoring unit, TECIS-1. TECIS-1 (Terrestrial Ecosystem...
From South Korea to the Moon: “Danuri” launches successfully
SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, USA at 2308 GMT on 4 August. The vehicle was carrying Danuri (meaning “enjoy the Moon”) - better known as the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO). As South Korea’s first Lunar...
End of the line for Astra Rocket 3.3 design as company moves on to bigger rocket
According to the success/failure ratio on the Seradata SpaceTrak database, the Astra Rocket 3 series cannot be called a reliable launch vehicle. The Astra Rocket 3 series failed five times out of seven attempts, while the latest version failed three out of five times....
China launches its CSSHQ-1 mini-spaceplane again
Amid a flurry of orbital launches, a human suborbital flight and some short range ballistic missile flights over Taiwan, one mysterious launch - from the Jiuquan launch site in China took place at 0402 GMT on 4 August - still caught the attention of observers. A Long...
Blue Origin launches sixth space tourism sub-orbital flight
After a brief delay Blue Origin has successfully launched its sixth crewed sub-orbital flight. The launch took place at 1357 GMT on 4 August. New Shepard flight NS-22 carried six passengers to an apogee of 347,585 ft - 106 km AGL (Above Ground Level) and 351,232 ft -...
ULA’s Atlas V launches SBIRS GEO-6 missile detection satellite
A ULA Atlas V 421 rocket has carried the SBIRS GEO-6 missile early warning satellite into Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) following its launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida. In addition to using the new RL10C-1-1 engine on the Centaur stage, this uprated version of...
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