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  • 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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