SSI News
SATELLITE 2024: Intelsat CEO hints at in-orbit expansion plans and a terrestrial investment
Matthew Wilson, Seradata Reporter and Data Manager, reports from the Satellite 2024 conference in Washington, US, starting with the opening day keynote made by Intelsat’s CEO David Wajsgras David Wajsgras, CEO of Intelsat, began his address with a reminder of the US...
Third time lucky for Super Heavy/Starship ascent – barring its re-entry
After two failed launches, hopes were high that the Super Heavy first stage and its Starship upper stage/reusable spaceship would perform well on the combination’s third flight attempt. Those hopes were not misplaced. At 1325 GMT on 14 March, the mammoth SpaceX rocket...
A tale of two launch failures: Japan’s KAIROS rocket’s maiden voyage and China’s Long March 2C
The maiden flight of the Japanese commercial KAIROS (Kii-based Advanced and Instant Rocket System) launch vehicle ended in failure after only five seconds of flight. Carrying a dummy satellite, KAIROS was launched from the Kii Space Port, Japan, at 0201 GMT on 13...
Human Spaceflight in March: NASA’s Crew 8 reach ISS, Roscosmos aborts mission at the last moment and Chinese astronauts take a spacewalk
Crew Dragon Endeavour, with NASA Crew 8 onboard, was successfully launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Centre, US at 0353 GMT on 4 March. The crew comprised Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps and Alexander Grebenkin. The initial orbit was 215...
New Space Orders in March 2024: smaller GEO sats are the plat du jour but LEO shows the future
GEO satellite contracts Typifying how the geostationary orbit (GEO) market has moved to small spacecraft for smaller regional operators, GEO satellite manufacturer Astranis has received an order from Thaicom for a small microGEO communications spacecraft as part of a...
OSAM-1: an obituary of the US$2.4 billion NASA refuelling mission that never made it to the launchpad
Farah Ghouri looks back at the life, barely begun, of OSAM-1 after the refuelling demonstration mission is axed by NASA The idea for OSAM-1 (On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1), first known as RESTORE-L, was conceived in 2015, in a bid to help extend...
Launches in March 2024
Mel’s Good Space: International Women’s Day
March marks International Women’s Day (March 8th), and Women’s History Month, and here in the space industry we are fortunate to have amazing females blazing new paths. However, less than 25% of the workforce is female, and at a leadership level it is even fewer, with...
Round-up of recommended space stories in February
We're keeping an eye on space news, so you don't have to. Here's our round-up of the most important, and interesting, space news stories of February from across the web: Money money money: Acquisitions dominated with the likes of Lockheed Martin looking to take over...
IM-1 becomes first commercial spacecraft to…(crash) land on the Moon (Updated)
Farah Ghouri and David Todd followed the launch, descent, landing and subsequent communications of the first private spacecraft lunar landing “Odysseus is alive and well” was the first update on IM-1 from its operator after the lander touched down on the Moon, making...