Space News: Launch of ISRO’s GSAT 17, Cassini completes 13 years and more
Recap of space news for June 26 — July 2
Every Monday, we curate the most interesting stories from the previous week in space science and technology on our Medium blog.
Solar System
Saturn
Cassini celebrated thirteen years at Saturn on the night of June 30. It’s science results over the years have helped us discover quite a bit about the Saturnian system and our own solar system as a whole.
Countries
India
Indian students win a gloabal aerospace competition, CanSat, held at Texas this year. “Organised by American Astronautical Society (AAS) and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), CanSat is an annual design-build-fly competition with space related theme.”
USA
The KFC chicken that was launched into space has returned much earlier to earth because of a technical anomaly, less than 24 hours after take off.
Donald Trump has revived the National Space Council within the Executive Office of the President of United States after the body was disbanded in 1993 by the then-President George H. W. Bush. Legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin was present at the announcement, with meme-worthy expressions on his face in reaction to Trump’s baffling statements about “space.”
Launches
ISRO
India’s communication satellite, GSAT 17, was launched by Ariane-5 from French Guiana. The 3477 kg satellite joins India’s 16 other communication satellites currently in orbit.
SpaceX
The agency called off its third launch in two weeks just ten seconds before liftoff due to a technical issue.
China
The country’s most powerful rocket, Long March 5, was launched from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, but was declared a failure by the Chinese media 45 minutes later.
People, oh god.
NASA was forced to clarify there are no child sex slaves on Mars. Really.
