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  • Payloads of the Past: From Looking Up to Looking Down

    Previously we went on a journey aboard Cold War payloads that were designed to look up and out: Geiger counters hunting for trapped radiation belts; rendezvous kits rehearsing an orbital choreographed dance; and capsules containing a man’s best friend that explored the unknown so that humans could soon follow. This month we pivot from that urgency in orbit to a quieter revolution (arguably like my kids, getting louder everyday) unfolding below, as engineers and technologists learn to treat Earth itself as the most important “target” in the sky, from commercial and government (Defence) standpoints. Early weather and Earth‑observation payloads turned “looking down” from a curiosity into a strategic asset, changing not only how we understood the planet but also how nations planned, traded…

  • Payloads of the Past: Explorer 1 – America’s First Orbiting Satellite

    A New Year, A Cold War Deadline (Do not Worry we are looking at 1958) It is January 1958; the United States has already watched Sputniks 1 and 2 cross the night sky and seen the Vanguard launch fail on live television. Confidence, at least in public, was wobbling.​ Into that gap stepped an Army–JPL team, leading this were a few legends of the industry, Wernher von Braun and James Van Allen (You know the belt? This is why), they were given a brutally tight schedule to field a complete launch vehicle and science payload in 90 days. The result? A slim, pencil‑like satellite only about 2m long, 16cm in diameter and 14kg. Perched atop a modified Redstone known as Juno I and cleared to fly from Cape Canaveral before the patience of Washington became untenable and programmes were closed.​ At…

  • Payloads of the Past: Gemini 7/6A – Rendezvous Above the Earth

    December 4 th is a fabulous day, and not because it my birthday. Back in 1965 a historic event occurred, one that in today’s Space and Satellite growth, has significant relevance. Gemini 7 lifted off from Cape Kennedy carrying Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, who would later become famous for his command on Apollo 13, embarked on what would become a nearly 14‑day mission, the longest U.S. crewed flight to that point. Officially a medical and long‑duration test flight, Gemini 7 had a secondary task, to serve as the passive target for Gemini 6A, flown by Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford, which launched on December 15 th , and executed the first true crewed orbital rendezvous, closing to within about 1ft of its sister spacecraft. The mission pair answered two critical questions on the road to…

  • NEW BLOG SERIES: Payloads of the Past: November - Sputnik II and the Legacy of Laika

    November is a landmark month in satellite history, marked indelibly by a mission that not only expanded our technical horizons but also forced us to confront difficult ethical questions that still resonate today. As part of a new monthly series, “Payloads of the Past", I take a look back at a pivotal, yet often controversial, moment in the story of satellites and space. Remembering Sputnik II: Breaking New Ground On November 3, 1957, the Soviet Union’s Sputnik II became the first spacecraft to carry a living passenger into Earth orbit. That passenger was Laika, a stray dog from Moscow who, to this day, symbolises both the bold promise and the moral complexities of early space exploration. Laika’s journey, just one month after the world-awakening launch of Sputnik I proved rapid progress…

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