July 2018

The final static firing of a rocket motor has scored a new record for Norway. Over a burn time of about 40 seconds, the motor generated 30 kN [approx. 6,700 lbf] of thrust, an equivalent of over 40 kN [9,000 lbf] of thrust in vacuum. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018070802

NASA’s Kepler team received an indication that the spacecraft fuel tank is running very low. NASA has placed the spacecraft in a hibernation-like state in preparation to download the science data collected in its latest observation campaign. Once the data has been downloaded, the expectation is to start observations for the next campaign with any…

ISRO carried out a major technology demonstration on 5 July, the first in a series of tests to qualify a Crew Escape System, which is a critical technology relevant for human spaceflight. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018070500

Airbus has won two studies from the European Space Agency (ESA) to design a Sample Fetch Rover and an Earth Return Orbiter. These two elements will be critical parts of a mission to return samples of the planet Mars to Earth before the end of the next decade. NASA and ESA signed a letter of…

Russia’s Roskosmos space corporation and its Chinese counterparts signed a number of agreements on space co-operation last month during a summit between Presidents Putin and Xi. The agreements followed a deal signed in March on Russian-Chinese co-operation in the exploration of the moon and outer space, and the creation of joint orbital groups. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018070502

Europe’s next four Galileo satellites have been fuelled at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, in preparation for their launch on 25 July. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018070400

The laser ranging interferometer (LRI) instrument has been successfully switched on aboard the recently launched twin U.S./German Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) satellites. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018070401

The Aerospace Corporation announced that it achieved first light on an infrared sensor suite named CubeSat Multispectral Observing System (CUMULOS), which was flown as a secondary payload on the Integrated Solar Array and Reflectarray Antenna (ISARA) CubeSat–a mission managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), operated by Aerospace, and sponsored by NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology…

Vladimir Solntsev, the head of the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (RSC Energia) is to step down on 3 August, corporation officials were quoted as saying. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018070403