Space

According to a 17 March 2020 report in The National, the launch of the UAE's Mars orbiter, slated to lift off from Japan in July, is on schedule despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a recent South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) videoconference to develop a joint strategy to combat Covid-19, Afghan president Ashraf Ghani asked India to make a satellite available to Afghan residents to assist with online education and help ensure social distancing to prevent spread of the virus, according to a report published on HindustanTimes.com on 15 March 2020.

OneWeb, the global communications company with a mission to bring connectivity to everyone everywhere, confirmed its next launch will take place on Saturday, 21 March 2020 at 17:06 GMT from the historic Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

SpaceX launched its sixth Starlink mission at 8:16 a.m. EDT (12:16 UTC) on 18 March 2020. The Falcon 9  launch vehicle lifted off from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, US.

Members of the public will be given the opportunity to comment on proposals for a spaceport to launch small vertical rockets from Unst in Scotland during a series of exhibitions in early May.

Let’s face it—the 2020s have thus far been weird. Small sample size, various black swan events, cell phones are driving us crazy, these are all true, but it still feels like 2020 is just a little bit weirder than normal, and perhaps more importantly, some of the weirdness is starting to feel like it will not be temporary weirdness.

Space systems comapny Rocket Lab, announced on 16 March 2020 that it has reached an agreement to acquire Sinclair Interplanetary, a provider of high-quality, flight-proven satellite hardware. Financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

The first science experiments that will be hosted on the Gateway, an international outpost which will orbit the Moon, have been selected by ESA and NASA.

The Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis I mission has successfully completed several months of simulated space environment system level testing in the NASA-owned thermal vacuum chamber at Plum Brook Station in Ohio, according to a 16 March 2020 announcement by Airbus.

L3Harris Technologies has introduced a new small satellite reflector antenna that will help decrease the size, weight and overall time to produce smallsats, the company announced on 9 March 2020.