Taiyuan, China (XNA) Oct 13, 2022
China launched a new satellite for disaster reduction, emergency management, and environment monitoring from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern Shanxi province early Thursday. A Long March-2C rocket carrying the satellite S-SAR01 lifted off at 6:53 am (Beijing Time). The satellite has entered the preset orbit. Its primary users will be the Ministry of Emergency Managemen

After a two-week voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, the ship transporting the first Meteosat Third Generation satellite docked at Pariacabo in French Guiana and the precious cargo unloaded. Now safe and sound in one of the spaceport’s cleanrooms, satellite engineers will ready it for liftoff on an Ariane 5 rocket in December. Once in geostationary orbit, this new satellite, which carries two new extremely sensitive instruments, promises to further bolster Europe's leadership in weather forecasting.

China is preparing to launch the final missions to complete its three-module Tiangong space station which it plans to keep constantly occupied for at least a decade.

Orbex has raised $45.8 million in a new funding round as the U.K. company gears up for the first flight of its small launch vehicle in 2023.

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A European astrophysics spacecraft stranded when Russia cut off access to Soyuz launch vehicles may instead fly on a SpaceX Falcon 9, NASA officials said Oct. 17.

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Video: 00:53:23

Watch the replay of Samantha’s first news conference in Europe after almost six months of living and working on board the International Space Station. Samantha talks from ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. Her Minerva mission came to an end last week and she and her colleagues from Crew-4 splashed down off the coast of Florida on 14 October at 22:55 CEST.

Panasonic Avionics, one of the largest providers of satellite-enabled broadband to aircraft, said Oct. 18 it has reached a deal to sell low Earth orbit (LEO) connectivity services from OneWeb in the second half of 2023.

While Starlink is ramping up efforts to expand its foothold in Asia, satellite operators there remain undeterred as they expect the U.S. broadband service would end up seeking their help for business. 

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Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder said Oct. 18 DoD would not comment on Elon Musk's recent tweets about Starlink services in Ukraine

The post Pentagon: It’s up to SpaceX to decide what to do about Starlink in Ukraine appeared first on SpaceNews.

Eutelsat is preparing to deploy the first of two new jamming-resistant broadcast satellites over the Middle East following signal interference in Iran.

The post Eutelsat fortifying jamming defenses over Middle East appeared first on SpaceNews.