SSI News
Nuclear weapons in space: Russia has plans, warns White House
A “troubling” space-based anti-satellite weapon is being developed by Russia, according to US intelligence. The news was originally intended just for Congress but, at the request of Republicans, elements of such a threat were disclosed to the public. To allay some of...
More woes for space insurers as O3b mPOWER claim runs to US$472 million
SES is formally filing an insurance claim for all four of the O3b mPOWER communications satellites that it originally launched. The claim could run to US$472 million – a figure that would make it the biggest net insurance loss to date, according to Seradata's records....
Analysis: NASA/CalTech Jet Propulsion Lab lays off 530…but is it the right ‘RIF’?
The NASA/CalTech Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) field centre has laid off 530 people. The latest cuts, which affect 8 per cent of the workforce, include space scientists and engineers with significant experience. JPL is also releasing 40 contractors in addition to...
Eutelsat 113 West A has its retirement brought forward by failure in orbit
Eutelsat 113 West A satellite has failed in orbit due to an undisclosed anomaly on 31 January 2024. The satellite was beyond its 15 year minimum design life and was no longer insured. The satellite which was soon to retire, was originally launched as Satmex-6 in May...
Round-up of recommended space stories in January
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 January from across the web: Upcoming Missions: New rockets due to fly in 2024 while another lunar landing attempt in February...
Mel’s Good Space
Melissa Quinn, General Manager of Seradata, introduces her new regular column. If any of you have ever heard me speak at an event, or on my social media, you would have heard me reference Good Space. Good Space is my ‘why’ – the thing that gets me up every...
Launches in January 2024
The dust had barely settled from the fireworks and celebrations of the new year, before launch vehicles were being launched again. Keep up with the latest launches in January on this page, as we will regularly update our tracker: 1 January 2024 -...
An audience with the ‘father of smallsats’: Sir Martin Sweeting
Farah Ghouri finds out the status of the Lunar Pathfinder project, why the cubesat bubble is far from bursting, and how it will be “quite interesting” to discover life beyond Earth, from Sir Martin Sweeting, chief executive of Surrey Satellite Technology Limited...
NASA mourns revolutionary Mars helicopter Ingenuity after it suffers blade damage
While drones are commonplace on Earth, where amateur versions are often used as toys, their use on other planets is still being explored. It is clear that the technology will provide significant benefits. Drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), for example, can be...
Japan’s SLIM makes historic (crash) landing on the Moon…and is revived
Japan watched with bated breath to see if its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) would safely reach the lunar surface and make it only the fifth nation to achieve the feat, following the success of India’s Chandrayaan-3 last year. A live stream of the event by...