The European Commission has selected providers for the second-generation of its Galileo satellite navigation system. The announcement, on 20 January, identified European space industry stalwarts Airbus Defence and Space (Airbus DS) and Thales Alenia Space (TAS) as the...
NASA might have said that it wanted a minimum of 250 seconds’ worth of engine firing plus gimbal movements to attain whether the SLS core stage was safe to launch, but it did not get it at the test firing at the Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, USA. In the...
According to the Seradata SpaceTrak launch and satellite database, the “final score” for launches in 2020 is 11 launch failures out of 114 orbital attempts. One of these was really a minor partial involving a pair of stuck Lemur satellites on a Vega (only about 3 per...
On 9 December 2020 ESA (European Space Agency) placed an order with Italian suppliers for an reusable lifting body called Space Rider. The Space Rider has been championed by the Italian government and industry for many years as a way forward to a “space...
In what most independent observers judged to be a successful test flight (well, for most of it), the Starship prototype SN8 upper stage was launched from Boca Chica in Texas on 9 December. The reusable craft lifted itself off the pad on its new raptor engines and then...
Momentus, a firm building a new concept in inter-orbital transportation, has signed a deal with Canadensys Aerospace Corporation to launch one of its payloads to low lunar orbit (LLO) using the Momentus “Ardoride” space delivery spacecraft. The...
