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Iran’s Space Launch: Did They or Didn’t They?
(earlier report on Iran’s space launcher acivity here) Much reporting since yesterday regarding Iran’s claims to have launched an object into space. To set the record right, Mohsen Bahrami, the head of Iran’s aerospace research centre, told state television that “The first space rocket has been successfully launched into space,” without disclosing its range or…
Vanguard 1: Fifty Years Later
Requirement: 1) place a satellite in orbit during the IGY; 2) accomplish a scientific experiment in orbit; 3) track the satellite and ensure its attainment of orbit. Because of an ongoing classified program to put reconnaissance satellites in orbit (Project WS-117 using Air Force Thor MRBM’s – which later became the Korona-series of reconnaissance…
And Then There Were Two…
Atlantis Lifts Off Space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the STS-132 mission to the International Space Station at 2:20 p.m. EDT on May 14. The third of five shuttle missions planned for 2010, this was the last planned launch for Atlantis. The Russian-built Mini…
Back to the Future: LRO Images Apollo 11’s Landing Site
Apropos that on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the landing on the Moon, the latest US visitor and (hopefully) precursor to our return via the Constellation program, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imaged the location in Mare Tranquilis that was the site of Apollo 11’s landing (click on image to enlarge): Note the object…
Challenger/STS-51L
Twenty-eight years ago this morning our hearts were broken…
The Problem With Debris: The ASAT Test One Year Later
About this time last year (11 Jan), China conducted the now infamous direct-ascent ASAT (Anti-Satellite) hit-to-kill test. We have written to some degree about it already – notably here and here. Both articles describe the notorious aspect of the test – the addition of significant amounts of debris to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). How much? …


