On Tuesday, October 26, 2021, Japan successfully launched their QZS-1R satellite, from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture. This is a replacement for the nation’s aging Michibiki No. 1 satellite. Manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., the Michibiki No. 1 satellite was launched in 2010 and has now reached the end of its operational […]
Launch Facilities
Webb Space Telescope Scientific Instruments To Start Functional Testing In Kourou
The Webb Space Telescope (WST) has arrived at the European space port in Kourou, French Guiana. The spacecraft will now be prepared for its launch, scheduled for December 18, on an Ariane 5 launcher. One of the four instruments in the scientific suitcase is the Near InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec) built by Airbus in Germany. Prior […]
Arianespace’s Successful Soyuz Launch Ensures OneWeb’s Constellation Is Halfway To The Firm’s Constellation Deployment Goal
Arianespace’s tenth launch of 2021 with the seventh Soyuz rocket launched this year will place the OneWeb satellite passengers into LEO — the launcher will be carrying a total payload of approximately 5,797 kg. The launch was performed at Vostochny, in Russia. Flight ST36, the sixth commercial mission from Vostochny in Russia, placed 36 OneWeb […]
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Safely Shipped To French Guiana For Launch
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope successfully arrived in French Guiana on Tuesday, October 12, after a 16-day journey at sea. The 1,500-mile voyage took Webb from California through the Panama Canal to Port de Pariacabo on the Kourou River in French Guiana on the northeastern coast of South America. The world’s largest and most complex […]
The Norwegian Government Has Approved The Building Of A New Spaceport
Since the early 1960s, research rockets have been sent into the Earth’s atmosphere from Andøya, Norway. Now, the Norwegian Government has given the green light to take steps to start new space adventure in the country. A new spaceport will be built 30 miles south of the existing rocket launch site on Andøya where rockets […]
NewSpace India Limited’s GSAT-24 Satellite To Launch From Arianespace On Ariane 5
NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) entrusted Arianespace with the launch of its GSAT-24 telecommunications satellite on September 28, 2021. GSAT-24 is scheduled for launch in the first quarter of 2022, from the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on one of the seven Ariane 5 missions remaining to be performed with the heavy-lift […]
Discussions Occur To Strengthen Ties Between Prestwick Spaceport, Scotland, + Houston Spaceport, U.S.
Following Prestwick Spaceport’s recent launch partnership announcement with UK horizontal ‘air launch’ company Astraius, Central Ayrshire MP Dr. Philippa Whitford has met with Professor David Alexander OBE, from the board of directors of Houston Spaceport Development Corporation, to discuss plans for the future and to strengthen ties between the two facilities — the pair were […]
Ready To Launch Space Operations New Zealand Is Launched
Great South’s space operations business has grown to such an extent that on October 1, 2021 it became a stand-alone company, Space Operations New Zealand Ltd. This speaks well for the business that has undergone exponential growth in recent years with increasing demand from international small satellite companies for its commercial and civilian ground station […]
NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System To Be Deployed Via A Rocket Lab Electron Launch Vehicle
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has been selected to launch NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System, or ACS3, on thir Electron launch vehicle. NASA’s ACS3 technology demonstration uses composite materials – or a combination of materials with different properties, in its novel, lightweight booms that deploy from a cubesat to support a solar sail. […]
Swedish Space Corporation To Finalize The Building Of A New Spaceport At Esrange Space Center
Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) have signed a 12 million euros loan agreement for the finalization of a new spaceport at Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, northern Sweden. The 12-year maturity loan will finance the investments to enable the use of reusable rockets and the ability to launch smallsats into […]