AFTER 50 YEARS PIONEERING SATELLITE IMAGERY, NASA'S LANDSAT IS READY FOR 50 MORE - NASA’s Landsat satellites have consistently made history in Earth observation since the project’s first launch in 1972, with this year marking 50 years of innovation and science. Its influence may surprise you, as will its continued relevance in the face of a fast-growing commercial imaging satellite sector. Landsat may be a familiar name to you but doesn’t ring any particular bells. It’s understandable — there are a ton of NASA satellites up there looking down on the planet.    More
(Source: TechCrunch - Jul 29)

OPERATION CENTRES IN TUNE FOR UPCOMING WEATHER SATELLITE - In just a few months’ time Europe’s first Meteosat Third Generation satellite will soar into the skies on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana. From geostationary orbit, this new satellite, carrying two new highly sensitive instruments, will take weather forecasting to the next level. Taking a significant step towards launch, the satellite operations teams at two different centres have completed an all-important suite of tests ensuring that their procedures are fully compatible with the satellite.   More
(Source: European Space Agency - Jul 29)

RUSSIA REPORTEDLY TELLS NASA IT’S STAYING WITH THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION UNTIL AT LEAST 2028 - After insinuating that it planned to leave the International Space Station partnership after 2024, Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos has told NASA that it intends to remain in the program until at least 2028, according to a report in Reuters. Roscosmos plans to stay involved with the ISS until it gets a new Russian space station up and running, with 2028 as the target date. Roscosmos caused turmoil yesterday when its newly appointed director, Yuri Borisov, told Russian President Vladimir Putin that a decision had been made to leave the ISS partnership after 2024.   More
(Source: The Verge - Jul 28)

ESA SELECTS VIASAT FOR MULTI-ORBIT SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS STUDY - Viasat said July 26 it has been selected to study multi-orbit satellite networks for the European Space Agency. The study will be conducted by the U.S.-based satellite broadband operator’s British subsidiary, which will spend a year evaluating technical requirements and potential markets for hybrid networks that combine multiple frequency bands and network architectures.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jul 28)

CAS SPACE PUTS SIX SATELLITES IN ORBIT WITH FIRST ORBITAL LAUNCH - Chinese launch services provider CAS Space successfully placed six small satellites in orbit early Wednesday with the first launch of the Lijian-1 solid rocket. The four-stage Lijian-1 (ZK-1A) rocket lifted off from an erector-launcher at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 12:12 a.m. Eastern. Launch success was confirmed by China’s official space publication within an hour of liftoff.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Jul 28)

TWO OF EUROPE'S BIGGEST INTERNET SATELLITE COMPANIES ARE MERGING TO TAKE ON STARLINK - Internet satellite operators OneWeb and Eutelsat are planning to merge in the hopes of becoming a stronger rival to SpaceX's Starlink. The merger, which is subject to approval from regulators and Eutelsat shareholders, is expected to close by mid-2023 and it values OneWeb at $3.4 billion. Shareholders of OneWeb and Eutelsat will each own half of the combined company. Eutelsat has a fleet of 36 geostationary orbit satellites.   More
(Source: - Jul 27)

RUSSIA SAYS IT WILL QUIT THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION AFTER 2024 - Russia will pull out of the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost, the country's new space chief said Tuesday amid high tensions between Moscow and the West over the fighting in Ukraine. Yuri Borisov, appointed this month to lead the state space agency, Roscosmos, said during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin that Russia will fulfill its obligations to its partners before it leaves.   More
(Source: NPR - Jul 27)

DISCO-BALL SATELLITE WILL PUT EINSTEIN'S THEORY TO STRICTEST TEST YET - A newly launched satellite aims to measure how Earth’s rotation drags the fabric of space-time around itself — an effect of Einstein’s general theory of relativity — ten times more accurately than ever before. The Laser Relativity Satellite 2 (LARES-2) launched from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 13 July. It was built by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) at a cost of around €10 million (US$10.2 million), and lifted off on the maiden flight of an upgraded version of the European Vega rocket, called Vega C.   More
(Source: Nature - Jul 26)

HUGE CHINESE ROCKET BOOSTER FALLING FROM SPACE AFTER LAUNCHING SPACE STATION MODULE - China has once again opted to let a huge rocket stage fall back to Earth on its own. The decision, the third time the country has opted not to control the disposal of the first stage of the Long March 5B rocket, once again puts China under scrutiny from space debris trackers after similar uncontrolled falls in 2020 and 2021. Jonathan McDowell, an experienced tracker of these events at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said U.S. Space Command orbital data is showing the 21-ton stage floating on its own.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jul 26)

Previous Next