The Chang’e 4 mission: Launch, payload, and landing zone
On 7 December 2018, the Chang’e 4 mission was launched on board a Longmarch 3B rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan. Its destination? The far side of the Moon. As...
Interview: Singapore/UK Infinite Orbits on satellite life extension & tracking space objects
Infinite Orbits is a Singapore/UK-based in-space satellite servicing company. Founded in early 2017, the company is focusing on life extension and bring into use services for Geostationary Communication Satellite (GEO COMS)...
Mars simulators in China & around the world
This October, the Chinese Academy of Sciences opened the doors to its very own Mars analogue simulator in the Gobi Desert.
The Chinese Mars environment simulator was announced last month along with...
Japan’s Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission & payloads
Earlier this month, we took a look at the recent developments from JAXA and their European partners with regards to Hayabusa 2 and the MASCOT hopper rover.
In the following days of...
China-ESA SMILE spacecraft to launch on Vega-C in 2021
Between October 10-12, scientists from China’s space programme and the European Space Agency (ESA) conducted a review of China-ESA joint mission SMILE. During the review, they confirmed that the SMILE spacecraft...
China’s Asteroid Capture Plan
Earlier this year, Chinese media outlets announced that researchers from the National Space Science Center in Beijing had come up with a plan to capture an asteroid and steer it back...
ESA-JAXA Mercury mission BepiColombo successfully launched on Ariane 5
The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo joint mission to Mercury has been launched on an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou at 01:45:28 GMT on 20 October on its mission.
Signals from the spacecraft,...
Updates from Hayabusa2 and its MASCOT lander
Previously we reported on how the asteroid sample-return spacecraft Hayabusa2 was finally within range of its target to get a slightly-less blurred look of the surface features. In this article, we’re going to...
Facing the heat: the amazing engineering of the Parker Solar Probe
The other evening when I took a taxi ride home, the driver said “what a hot day!” as soon as I got in. She went on to explain that she had...
Japan’s ispace selects SpaceX for first two lunar missions
ispace, a Japan-based company developing robotics for lunar delivery and resource exploration, announced today that SpaceX will be the launch provider for its first two maiden voyages to the Moon scheduled...