Hi friends;

The newsletter has now its own domain name: sat-rdv.com 😎. Much more convenient to share with others. Do not hesitate to support this newsletter by sharing it as widely as you can!

25% completed the survey concerning the editorial and the results have been quite clear:

85% voted to “keep the editorial weekly as it is, quality is sufficient”.

15% preferred to “send it in a different (long) email, and reduce the frequency in order to increase the quality”

55% read the edition from time to time, while 40% look forward to the next one.

11% find the editorial interesting and 40% find it of sufficient quality.

Even if I find that the subject in each issue are less complete in form and substance, considering the poll results, I am a little reassured and I feel a somehow obliged 😆 to continue the weekly editorials as it has been the case so far. So I decided to give myself two more months to see if the pace is still tenable!

In any case thank you for those who completed the form and thank you for those who left me encouragements.

And as always, have a great week!

Tarik

PS: In the last issue, a small error were made, the required surface is round 700.000 not 700km2, which is actually too small to be the area of Spain 😉

🛰 Here is what you missed

👉 Despite complications with COVID-19, Hope, the first Mars orbiter developed by the UAE arrives to its launch site in Japan. The launch is scheduled for July 14 on board the Japanese H-2A launcher. If all goes well, the rover will orbit around March to study its atmosphere in early 2021…[+]

👉 The Square Kilometre Array Organisation (SKAO) now has a new member. The University of Science and Technology École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) will participate in the coordination of this project. The SKAO project is a large telescope spread over two sites in Australia and South Africa and that will allow to survey the sky more than ten thousand times faster than ever before...[+]

👉 The French space agency (CNES) has just signed a contract with Airbus Defence and Space (ADS) to develop the thermal infrared instrument for the Franco-Indian climate monitoring satellite TRISHNA. ISRO will provide the platform with visible and short wave infrared instrument, while ADS, on behalf of CNES, will provide the thermal infrared instrument...[+]

👉 The English startup Lanterne launches “Crowdless” application to cope with COVID-19. It is an application that will use satellite data and deep learning algorithms to identify where people are congregating in a city. The idea is that anyone who wants to go to a place (supermarket, pharmacy, shop...), will be able to consult the application before leaving to know whether/which places are crowded...[+]

👉The french space agency CNES launched a R&D challenge for french startups and research laboratories to propose innovative solutions for the european launcher Ariane 6…[+]

👉Ever wanted to hack a satellite? the US Air force is launching a hacking challenge and wants hackers from around the world to hack its satellites IN ORBIT…[+]

👉 Remember the Intelsat satellite being docked by Northrop Grumman's Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV-1) of issue 6? This week, the operator confirms that the satellite is now operational and is currently offering its service to several customers. The MEV-1 will accompany IS-901 for another 5 years before being separated to extend the life of other satellites (orbit raising, inclination corrections, close inspections…)…[+]

👉 Iran, one of the countries hardest hit by COVID-19, announced that they managed to put their first military satellite into orbit on Wednesday coined"Noor" or “Light” in farsi. After the failed launch of Zafar-1 (issue 4), the Iranian Guard said their new mobile launcher Qased managed to put Noor-1 into a low orbit of 425km. No information were given on the payload...[+]

👉 Belgian company SatADSL and Emirates satellite service provider YahClick team up to offer broadband connectivity in sub-Saharan Africa in order to eradicate the digital exclusion on the continent...[+]

👉 The telecom operator OptimERA Inc. is collaborating with SES to increase its capacity in Alaska to handle the load experienced by its network due to current confinement. Thanks to this partnership, several institutions (residents, companies, hospitals...) are able to benefit from a stable internet connection despite the situation...[+]

👉 The name and the logo of the new Chinese Mars mission was unveiled. The mission will be named Tianwen-1 meaning "'Questions to heaven'", an expression taken from the name of a chinese poem born in the 4th century B.C. The logo is a drawing representing 8 planets and 'C's. This is a 3-in-1 mission: the goal is to accomplish a complete orbiting, landing and roving on Mars...[+]

👉 After a successful launch of the 7th Starlink batch, SpaceX asks the FCC the authorization to reduce the orbit of 4.400 satellites from 1.100-1.500 km to 540-570 km. SpaceX said the change would accelerate Starlink coverage for the USA and minimise space debris. It remains to be seen what impact this orbit change will have on amateur astronomy...[+]

👉 Roscosmos reduced their launching prices and services by 40%. The compagny used to dominate the market “but later aggressive rival began to emerge on that market. They were backed by powerful forces, such as Pentagon in the United States, and other government clients. They paid for domestic launches in the interests of the state three to four times as much as the market’s average" commented the CEO…[+]

👉Russia launched their Progress cargo ship number 75, with a Soyuz launcher to the ISS, packed with 3 tons of propellant, food and other supplies. The freighter docks successfully to the ISS…[+]

🍪 Cookie of the week

A short fascinating video of 10min summarizing, with superb animations, the Starlink project.

Here you are debriefed 👌. Rendezvous next week!

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