Satellite News

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew past Ultima Thule in the early hours of New Year’s Day, ushering in the era of exploration from the enigmatic Kuiper Belt.

On 31 December , NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, 110 million kilometers away, carried out a single, eight-second burn of its thrusters – and entered into orbit around the asteroid Bennu, which thus became the smallest object ever to be orbited by a spacecraft.

China’s Chang’e-4 probe has entered a planned orbit to prepare for the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced.

Maxar Technologies Inc. announced the completion of its statutory plan of arrangement, pursuant to which the ultimate parent company of Maxar Technologies Ltd. (“Maxar Canada”) became an entity incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware in the United States of America (the “U.S. domestication”).

Bradford Space, a U.S.-owned space systems manufacturer with locations in the Netherlands and Sweden, announced that it has acquired control over Deep Space Industries, Inc., often known as DSI.

The Indian government has approved a fund of around US$1.4 billion for its ambitious manned spaceflight (Gaganyaan Programme) that is to be launched within the next 40 months. The spacecraft will be launched to the low Earth orbit for a duration ranging from one orbital period to a maximum of seven days.

“With 112 launches, 2018 saw the most launches since 1990. While 1984 still holds the record with 129 launches, that was for 170 payloads, compared to 413 for 2018–an all-time record. That does not include another 25 payloads deployed from the ISS. Keeping up with all these objects is proving a challenge. USSTRATCOM still shows 14 of 25 ISS deployments in 2018 as unidentified and 161 of 588 objects from 2018 launches are, as well. 112 are from December launches alone. What goes up doesn’t always come down. 819 new objects were cataloged in 2018 but only 232 objects have decayed from orbit in 2018.” (Dr. T.S. Kelso via Twitter)