SSI News
IAC 2024: Space cooperation – but don’t sit next to me
The annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC) is the primary meeting place for space agencies to get together. That and the fact that it was hosted in highly fashionable Milan, in Northern Italy, made IAC the place to be seen this October. This fact was...
Intelsat IS-33e comsat explodes into 500 pieces of debris
A communications satellite in Intelsat’s Epic fleet created debris in space after it suffered an explosion in geostationary orbit at 0430 GMT on 19 October. Update on 29 October: Initial reports estimated that the event created 20 pieces of debris, but it was later...
SpaceX catches Super Heavy booster in historic feat during IFT-5 Starship test flight
SpaceX has taken a dramatic leap towards its dream of placing the first humans on Mars after the company successfully returned a 232-foot-tall (71-metre) booster to its launchpad on its first attempt. The Starship Super Heavy Test Flight 5 (IFT-5) (Ship 30 upper stage...
ULA on track for certification after Vulcan Centaur test flight despite booster nozzle blow out
Although the second test flight (CERT-2) of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket was successful, it was not without incident. Initially held up by temperature measurements that were out of range, the launch was authorised to go ahead after dawn had...
Launches in October 2024
SpaceX suspends Falcon 9 launches after another upper-stage anomaly afflicts crew mission
For the third consecutive month, SpaceX has brought launches of its Falcon 9 rocket to a temporary halt after an anomaly occurred on its latest crewed mission. What happened? Crew-9 was launched aboard a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 at 17:17 (GMT) on 28 September from Cape...
Satellite TV giants Dish and DirecTV decide to merge to fight outside competition rather than each other
While sometimes mergers and acquisitions signal the strength of a market, this cannot be said of the merger of former Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite TV rivals Dish Network and DirectTV. In a double move, Dish Network was acquired by DirecTV from its owner Echostar for...
Mel’s Good Space – September 2024
On 12 September I was asked to do an interview with Al Jazeera English covering the Polaris Dawn spacewalk. What was meant to be a 5-minute overview of what the mission meant to the commercialisation of space ended up being a 45-minute, live play-by-play of the...
Satellite and launch orders in September 2024
There were a number of launch and spacecraft orders this month. NASA is going to fund a Starship Space debris inspection mission launching in late 2026 In a blow for Europe's (late and expensive) Ariane 6, Eutelsat signs multi-launch agreement for Japan's H3 Astranis...
Seradata’s recommended space stories – September 2024
We are cutting through the orbital debris for you. In other words, we're keeping an eye on space news on the web so you don't have to. Here is our round-up of the most important, and interesting, space news stories of September (space orders can be found in another...
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