SSI News
SpaceX Falcon 9 puts 53 Starlink (Group 4-14) satellites into orbit as reusable first stage makes 12th flight
After a two and half hour delay due to high ground winds, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, USA at 1751 GMT on 21 April 2022. The vehicle was carrying 53 Starlink satellites (Group 4-14) for the Starlink low Earth orbit...
Soyuz launch-stymied OneWeb taps ISRO for launches after similar SpaceX multi-launch deal
OneWeb, a UK-based low Earth orbit (LEO) communications satellite constellation operator, has announced that it has contracted with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to supply at least two launches. The UK government and the Indian conglomerate Bharti...
USA gives up anti-satellite interception tests and hopes others will follow
US Vice President Kamala Harris has announced that the USA will no longer actively test anti-satellite (ASAT) interceptions – at least not with direct ascent missile systems. The announcement, in a speech at the Vandenberg launch base in California, comes after...
Russian cosmonauts conduct spacewalk preparing way for Europe’s robot arm
Two Russian cosmonauts on board the International Space Station, Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev began a spacewalk from the Poisk airlock on the International Space Station on 18 April 2022. The airlock was depressurized at 1433 GMT and the hatch was opened at 1501...
Shenzhou 13 undocks and returns to Earth
At 1655 GMT on 15 April, the Chinese astronaut-carrying Shenzhou 13 spacecraft undocked from the nadir (or Earth-facing) port of the Chinese Space Station (CSS/Tianhe 1) with Commander Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu onboard. The 182-day mission was the...
Falcon 9 launches mystery NRO satellite on mission NRO L-85…but shouldn’t there have been two? Did subsat separation fail?
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 rocket from Vandenberg, California, USA, at 1313 GMT on 17 April, carrying a secret payload under the mission name NRO L-85 for the US National Reconnaissance Office. The reusable first stage of the Falcon 9 vehicle (B1071 on...
China launches Long March 3B and 4C rockets in a single day
It was a busy "Good Friday" for China, which launched not one, but two rockets within hours of each other on 15 April 2022. Long March 3B-G2 (CZ-3B-G2) was the first of the two. It was successfully launched into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) at 1205 GMT from the...
SpaceX is contracted for multiple launches by South Korea, also will be launching a spacecraft for Exotrail, France
South Korea, through its Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), confirmed that it had contracted SpaceX to launch the five satellites of its military "425 project" on 11 April. The deal outlines that all five units will be launched by 2025 with the first...
ESA goes for Vega-C to launch Sentinel-1C radar observer and will replace hobbled Sentinel-1B radar sat (Corrected)
The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a launch contract on behalf of the European Union with French satellite launch provider Arianespace for the launch of the third Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite. The Sentinel-1C radar satellite, which weighs in at around 2.3...
UK Amber-1 CubeSat secures place on LauncherOne mission in the first orbital space launch from UK soil (Corrected)
The Satellite Applications Catapult (Catapult), a British innovation and technology company, has contracted with launch provider Virgin Orbit to include one of its satellites on a launch planned for later this year. The contract, announced on 6 April, covers the...
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