Weekly - GalaxEye launches world’s first OptoSAR satellite and more
🟢 Weekly Space News - Quick and Easy.
Our Engagement Palette!
Check out our colour-coded system for our weekly space news:
🟤 Brown: For weeks that are mundane and bland.
🟡 Yellow: For fairly interesting weeks.
🟢 Green: For the most exciting weeks.
This Palette will help you decide if this week’s news is worth your time!
This week ranks green 🟢 on the Engagement Palette.
GalaxEye launches world’s first OptoSAR satellite
Last week, Indian space startup GalaxEye launched its Drishti Earth observation satellite. This satellite has both an optical camera that captures visible light and a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) that emits its own radio waves and captures them once they bounce off the Earth’s surface to form an image. Until now, most missions have never had both these features on the same satellite due to various issues like the SAR interfering with the optical camera, vibrations, computing power and more. Drishti has been able to finally achieve this due to advancements in electronics and by using the latest chips.
Russia conducts first test launch of Soyuz-5 rocket
Last week, ROSCOSMOS successfully conducted the first test launch of its Soyuz-5 rocket. The rocket uses the RD-171M engine, which is considered one of the world's most powerful liquid-fuel engines. The Soyuz-5 rocket is designed to be able to carry payloads of up to 18 tons into Low Earth Orbit.
