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2023 In Spaceflight
The year 2023 saw rapid growth and significant technical achievements in spaceflight. For the third year in a row, new world records were set for both orbital launch attempts (223) and successful orbital launches (211). The growth in orbital launch cadence can in large part be attributed to SpaceX, as they increased their number of launches from 61 in 2022 to 98 in 2023. The deployment of the Starlink satellite Satellite internet constellation, megaconstellation was a major contributing factor to this increase over previous years. This year also featured numerous maiden launches of new launch vehicles. In particular, SSLV, Qaem 100, Tianlong-2, Chollima-1, and Zhuque-2 performed their first successful orbital launch, while SpaceX's Starship – the world's largest rocket – launched two times during its development stage: SpaceX Starship integrated flight test 1, IFT-1 and SpaceX Starship integrated flight test 2, IFT-2. In terms of national-level scientific space missions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Pioneer
Space Pioneer (), also known as Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., Ltd., is a Chinese aerospace company developing reusable orbital rocket technology—both launch vehicles and liquid rocket engines—to access the market for low-cost space launch services. The company is aiming to meet launch requirements for both the Chinese national satellite internet project and also the CNSA solicitation for resupply of the Tiangong space station. The stated mission of Space Pioneer is to "pursue new breakthroughs in technology and performance, ndto select a technological path based on the needs of the commercial market to improve launch efficiency and reduce launch costs." History Space Pioneer was founded in 2019 by Kang Yonglai. Kang was the former CTO of LandSpace until 2019, when he left to establish Space Pioneer. The company completed two funding rounds in 2019, including a ZJU Joint Innovation investment, to continue liquid bipropellant engine development of the Tianhuo serie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SSLV
The Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) is a small-lift launch vehicle developed by the ISRO, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to deliver payload to low Earth orbit () or payload to Sun-synchronous orbit (). The rocket supports multi-orbital drop-offs capability for small satellites. The maiden flight SSLV-D1 was conducted from First Launch Pad on 7 August 2022, however, the payload failed to reach the intended orbit. The second flight SSLV-D2 was successful in delivering payload into orbit on 10 February 2023. SSLV is made keeping low cost, low turnaround time in mind with launch-on-demand flexibility under minimal infrastructure requirements. It is capable of carrying multiple satellites. Once SSLV is operational, NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) and a group of Indian companies will manage the mass production and launch activities. Vehicle description The SSLV was developed with the aim of launching small satellites commercially at drastically reduced price and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satellite Internet Constellation
A satellite internet constellation is a constellation of artificial satellites providing satellite internet service. In particular, the term has come to refer to a new generation of very large constellations (sometimes referred to as megaconstellations ) orbiting in low Earth orbit (LEO) to provide low-latency, high bandwidth (broadband) internet service. As of 2020, 63 percent of rural households worldwide lacked internet access due to the infrastructure requirements of underground cables and network towers. Satellite internet constellations offer a low-cost solution for expanding coverage. History While more-limited satellite internet services have been available through geosynchronous commsats orbiting in geostationary orbit for years, these have been of quite limited bandwidth (not broadband), high- latency, and provided at such a relatively high price that demand for the services offered has been quite low. In the 1990s, several LEO satellite internet constel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Starlink
Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by Starlink Services, LLC, an international telecommunications provider that is a wholly owned subsidiary of American aerospace company SpaceX, providing coverage to around 130 countries and territories. Timestamp 12:00. It also aims to provide global mobile broadband. Starlink has been instrumental to SpaceX's growth. SpaceX began launching Starlink satellites in 2019. , the constellation consists of over 7,600 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) that communicate with designated ground transceivers, and Starlink comprises 65% of all active satellites. Nearly 12,000 satellites are planned, with a possible later extension to 34,400. SpaceX announced reaching over 1 million subscribers in December 2022 and 4 million subscribers in September 2024. The SpaceX satellite development facility in Redmond, Washington, houses Starlink research, development, manufacturing, and orbit control facilities. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the company has made numerous advancements in rocket propulsion, reusable launch vehicles, human spaceflight and satellite constellation technology. , SpaceX is the world's dominant space launch provider, its launch cadence eclipsing all others, including private competitors and national programs like the Chinese space program. SpaceX, NASA, and the United States Armed Forces work closely together by means of Government contractor, governmental contracts. SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk in 2002 with a vision of decreasing the costs of space launches, paving the way to SpaceX ambition of colonizing Mars, a sustainable colony on Mars. In 2008, Falcon 1 successfully launched into orbit after three failed launch attempts. The company then pivoted towar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spaceflight
Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in orbit around Earth, but also includes space probes for flights beyond Earth orbit. Such spaceflights operate either by telerobotic or autonomous control. The first spaceflights began in the 1950s with the launches of the Soviet Sputnik satellites and American Explorer and Vanguard missions. Human spaceflight programs include the Soyuz, Shenzhou, the past Apollo Moon landing and the Space Shuttle programs. Other current spaceflight are conducted to the International Space Station and to China's Tiangong Space Station. Spaceflights include the launches of Earth observation and telecommunications satellites, interplanetary missions, the rendezvouses and dockings with space stations, and crewed spaceflights on sci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2024 In Spaceflight
2024 saw new world records for orbital launch attempts and successful orbital launches for the fourth consecutive year. Notable milestones included the successful maiden launches of the American Vulcan Centaur and China's Gravity-1, and Long March 12 rockets. The European Ariane 6 rocket also conducted its inaugural flight, though it experienced a partial failure. SpaceX advanced its Starship development, with flight test 5 achieving the first landing of its first stage. Additionally, the final launch of a Delta family rocket, a Delta IV Heavy variant, occurred in April. In September, the private Polaris Dawn mission made history by performing the first commercial spacewalk, during which two crew members exited their Crew Dragon spacecraft. This mission set a new record for the number of individuals—four—simultaneously exposed to the vacuum of space. Two significant scientific missions were launched in October: NASA's Europa Clipper to Jupiter's moon Europa to l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2022 In Spaceflight
The year 2022 witnessed the number of launches of SpaceX's Falcon rocket family (61 launches) surpassing the CNSA's Long March rocket family (53 launches), making the United States the country with the highest number of launches in 2022 instead of China. This year also featured the first successful launch of Long March 6A, Nuri, Angara 1.2, Vega C, Kinetica-1, and Jielong-3. National space agencies' activities in this year was also affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which led to tensions between Roscosmos and Western space agencies, leading to threats of ending collaboration on the International Space Station (ISS), and resulting in several delays on various space missions. In terms of national-level scientific space missions, this year is a focal year on lunar exploration. 2022 saw the launch of NASA's CAPSTONE orbiter, KARI's Danuri orbiter and NASA's Artemis 1, the first mission of the Artemis program. In particular, Artemis 1 has two major goals: testi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Timeline Of Spaceflight
This is a timeline of known spaceflights, both crewed and uncrewed, sorted chronologically by launch date. Due to its large size, the timeline has been split into smaller articles, one for each year since 1951. There is a separate list for all flights that occurred before 1951. The list for the year and for its subsequent years may contain planned launches, but the statistics will only include past launches. For the purpose of these lists, a spaceflight is defined as any flight that crosses the Kármán line, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, FAI-recognized edge of space, which is Above mean sea level, above mean sea level (AMSL). The timeline contains all the flights which have either crossed the edge of space, were intended to do so but failed, or are planned in the near future. Notable test flights of spaceflight systems may be listed even if they were not planned to reach space. Some lists are further divided into orbital launches (sending a payload into ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zhuque-2
Zhuque-2 (, ''ZQ-2'') is a Chinese medium-class orbital launch vehicle developed by LandSpace. It is a liquid-fuelled rocket powered by liquid oxygen and liquid methane (methalox) and was the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit. Design Zhuque-2 has a liftoff weight of 216 tonnes and uses 4 TQ-12 methalox engines in the first stage, each with a thrust of . The second stage uses one vacuum-optimized TQ-12 with a thrust of in combination with a TQ-11 engine ( thrust), which acts as a vernier thruster. Zhuque-2 is capable of lifting 6,000 kg of payload into a 200 km low Earth orbit and 4,000 kg of payload into a 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit. History In May 2019, LandSpace performed test firings of its liquid-methane and liquid-oxygen fuelled TQ-12 rocket engine at its test facility at Huzhou, Zhejiang province. LandSpace's head of research and development, Ge Minghe, says that the engine has a thrust of 80 tonnes-force. The Huzhou facilit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LauncherOne
LauncherOne was a two-stage orbital launch vehicle developed and flown by Virgin Orbit that had operational flights from 2021 to 2023, after being in development from 2007 to 2020. It was an air-launched rocket, designed to carry smallsat payloads of up to into Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), following air launch from a carrier aircraft at high altitude. The rocket was carried to the upper atmosphere on a modified Boeing 747-400, named '' Cosmic Girl'', and released over ocean. Initial work on the program was done by Virgin Galactic, another Virgin Group subsidiary, before a separate entity — Virgin Orbit — was formed in 2017 to complete development and operate the launch service provider business separately from the passenger-carrying Virgin Galactic business. The first successful flight was on 17 January 2021, which delivered a payload of 10 CubeSats to low Earth orbit (LEO). Three further launches successfully reached orbit. An initial test flight was unsucces ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
