SSI News
Human space activity in July 2024
Spacewalks Taikonauts Ye Guangfu and Li Cong opened the hatch of the Wentian science module of the Tiangong Chinese Space Station at 0721 GMT on 3 July to begin their spacewalk. Their mission was to conduct inspections of EVA equipment and the station facilities along...
Seradata’s recommended space stories – July 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 July (space orders can be found in another post):...
Mel’s Good Space – July 2024
My dad was a firefighter, just not the kind that puts out flames in buildings. Instead, he fought fires in forests, from the air. He ‘bombed’ fires with water and retardant, to save communities and wildlife. His crew used radar to track where lightning was striking,...
NASA cancels VIPER rover
NASA has cancelled its VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) project 14 months before the golf-cart sized rover, which has already been completed, was set to launch. The news, announced in a teleconference on 17 July, sent shockwaves around the space...
Satellite and launch orders in July 2024
There were a number of launch and spacecraft orders ranging from small to big this month. Military launch orders & bookings Both ULA and SpaceX were smiling as they both got a share of US$1.8 billion set of National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 launch...
There’s no place like an underground cave on the Moon…but apparently there is
When H G Wells imagined a species of space creatures called Selenites living under the lunar surface in his sci-fi novel The First Men in The Moon, it was still unknown if such spaces even existed. While lunar sink holes and pits have long been accepted as part of the...
SpaceX loses 20 Starlink satellites after a rare Falcon 9 upper stage leak/engine failure
A routine launch of a Falcon 9 by SpaceX turned into anything but for the industry behemoth. At 0235 GMT on 12 July a Falcon 9 v1.2FT Block 5 rocket, carrying Starlink Group 9-3, rose from its launch pad at Vandenberg, California, US. The Starlinks onboard were a set...
Three weather sats lost after Hyperbola-1 (SQX-1) solid rocket suffers fourth stage failure
Despite a seemingly smooth launch, three Yunyao-1 weather satellites (Yunyao-1 15, 16 and 17) did not reach orbit after the Hyperbola 1 (SQX-1) experienced a fourth stage failure, Chinese authorities have disclosed. An upgraded version of the Hyperbola 1 (SQX-1) four...
Ariane 6 maiden launch: a good but not flawless flight as two payloads are misplaced
Ariane 6, Europe’s new rocket, has finally been launched from Kourou, French Guiana. The journey to this milestone has been far from smooth. The launch vehicle has been the target of much criticism aimed at its extended development time, its ‘out of date’ non-reusable...
UK general election: Labour wins but no real change likely on space policy
Labour won the UK general election by a landslide in terms of the number of seats secured, however its share of the votes cast on 4 July – on a noticeably low turnout – was just 34 per cent. So, it seems that while most of the electorate wanted the incumbent...
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