by David Todd | Jul 18, 2019 | Seradata Announcements
Having resisted doing so for five years, Seradata has finally joined Twitter. We know it has its pitfalls...say the "wrong thing" in a Tweet and those self-appointed arbiters of right and wrong - the Twitter mob - will be after you. Or possibly the financial...
by David Todd | Jul 17, 2019 | Apollo, exploration, NASA
The UK Space Agency and NASA have signed a new "Statement of Intent" to cooperate on lunar missions. The declaration was made on the same day of the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 - the first human landing on the Moon. UK Science Minister Chris Skidmore...
by David Todd | Jul 17, 2019 | NASA, SpaceX
The post flight ground test destruction of the previously flown (in uncrewed condition) Crew Dragon DM-1 capsule during SuperDraco thruster engine firing test on ground on 20 April 2019 was caused by a leak of nitrogen tetroxide a preliminary investigation by SpaceX...
by David Todd | Jul 17, 2019 | Apollo, History, NASA
For those of you who like to work their brains, here below is our Apollo 11 50th anniversary moon landing crossword. Some of you will have already seen this as we handed it out at our Seradata Space Conference last month. We awarded a prize to the first to complete...
by David Todd | Jul 17, 2019 | Apollo, History, NASA, Seradata News
While positive discrimination policies may not be the answer given these have their own dangers of discriminating against others, it has to be accepted that sexism and racism still provide barriers to entry for many people. And in the past this was far worse. And yet,...
Apollo 11: How to arrange life insurance for an astronaut
by David Todd | Jul 15, 2019 | Apollo, Blue Origin, Commercial human spaceflight, NASA, Seradata News, Space Insurance, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic
As the 50th celebration of the Apollo 11 astronaut moon landing mission gets underway, some less well known aspects of the mission have been revealed. One was that during the late 1950s the UK briefly considered starting a project to mount an Apollo 11 style human...
Galileo navigation signal goes down…and it takes a week to return to service (Updated)
by David Todd | Jul 15, 2019 | ESA, Satellites, Seradata News
The much-vaunted European Galileo navigation satellite constellation financed by the European Union (EU) and devised by the European Space Agency (ESA), is supposed to offer equivalent reliability and accuracy to the US GPS system. Therefore, there was more than a...
Spektr-RG X-ray observatory is finally launched by Russia
by David Todd | Jul 15, 2019 | ESA, Russia, Science, Seradata News
The Spektr-Rontgen-Gamma X-ray astronomy observatory, better known as Spektr-RG was launched at 1230 GMT on 13 July 2019 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam in Kazakstan. The first burn of the Block DM-03 upper stage placed itself and Spektr-RG into an initial...
Surprise Russian military launch uses Soyuz 2-1V to place four satellites into LEO
by Matt Wilson | Jul 11, 2019 | Launches, Military space, Russia, Satellites, Seradata News
At 1714 GMT, on 10 July 2091, an Soyuz 2-1V rocket lifted-off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia. The mission carried four satellites into LEO, in aid of the Russian military. These four units were later identified as COSMOS (KOSMOS) 2335, 2536, 2537 and...
NASA Administrator demotes human exploration head Gerstenmaier and his deputy
by David Todd | Jul 11, 2019 | exploration, NASA
In a "night of the long knives" purge, NASA's Administrator Jim Bridenstine has ruthlessly demoted its head of its Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate Bill Gerstenmaier and his deputy Bill Hill. Gerstenmaier becomes a special adviser to Deputy...