Spaceflight Vol 59 No 02 – February 2017

German female astronauts
Having introduced the competition to find Germany’s first woman astronaut in last month’s issue of Spaceflight, Tony Quine now provides brief biographical details on the candidates.

Remembering Apollo 1
Fifty years on from America’s first catastrophe in a manned spacecraft, the Editor looks again at the tragic circum-stances which led to the loss of three astronauts and to the wider repercussions.

Humans in Space – an Update
In this age of political convulsions Spaceflight reviews the changes and the challenges now facing protagonists of human space missions and asks whether it is not time to renew links with the commercial world.

STRAWMAN – The Deep Black Signals Intelligence Satellite
Intelligence analyst and specialist Dwayne Day opens the books on a class of satellite which served both tactical and strategic interests during the chilly days of the Cold War.

Volker Lieberg
Renowned Belgian space historian and archivist Theo Pirard speaks with the outgoing head of ESA’s Earth observa-tion satellite programmes and discusses the development of the integrated pan-European programme.

Regular Features

News Analysis – “God Speed John Glenn”

ISS Report – 16 November 2016-8 December 2016

Briefing notes – news shorts from around the world

Satellite Digest – 529 November 2016

Flashback – A regular feature looking back 50 years ago this month

Correspondence – Reality Check – Bugs in Space – Be careful…

Obituary – John R. Garman

Shelf – William Leitch – SpaceX’s Dragon

Society News – 2016 Sir Arthur Clarke Awards – Rockets in Droitwich

What’s On