December 2014
India joins the major league with the Mars Orbiter Mission
...’s human space-flight programme. The current version of the GSLV can carry only two-tonne class communication satellites. Those with a higher mass have to be launched by Arianespace’s Ariane-5 rocket from the European spaceport of Kourou in French...
May 2017
Will international space law struggle to remain relevant?
... a piece of debris passed by. At around the same time, an operational American commercial satellite (Iridium 33) and an inactive Russian communications satellite (Kosmos 2251) collided approximately 790 km above the Earth, resulting in their total...
June 2018
Striding through space
..., and three mission specialists, Ronald McNair, Robert Stewart and McCandless. The first task of deploying two communications satellites was performed properly, although the boost motors to transfer them to their operational orbits both malfunctioned...
October 2019
Reusability is key to expanding future space launch business
...and went from an annual geostationary launch rate in the high twenties to a market in the single digits. As most communications satellites have a typical design life of about 15 years, it is probably no coincidence we are seeing that cycle come round...
February 2020
Opportunity knocks for UK space industry
.... Currently we build a lot of space technology for science - from the International Space Station (ISS) through to communication satellites - but we still build it in a cottage industry type way. What we now need are factories building modular...
May 2024
DNA across the universe - the new Noah’s Ark?
... cargo flew on the smaller CZ-11 rocket from Jiuquan on 21 December 2018 with the primary payload, the Hongyun 1 communications satellite, reaching an orbit of 1063 to 1075 km high. It took off into the early dawn sky, its trail creating...
