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Spaceflight announced it will be launching 11 spacecraft in early January 2018 from the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Spacecraft include Finland’s Iceye-X1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) microsatellite, Planetary Resources’ Arkyd-6 6U asteroid prospecting demonstration cubesat, four Spire Global Lemur 2 cubesats, Astro Digital’s Landmapper-BC3, AmSat’s Fox-1D cubesat, and others....

On Nov. 27, SpaceX filed an amendment to its Series H funding round with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), tacking on an additional $101.3 million to the $351 million it already raised in August. According to CBInsights, this latest capital injection brings the total valuation of the company to $21.5 billion — making it...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has long been a vocal advocate for the construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a new spaceport in the Russian Far East that he hoped would reduce the country’s dependency on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Unfortunately, the first two launches from Vostochny have been abject failures, including this week’s failed mission...

Telesat announced that the Soyuz 2 launch vehicle that was to place 19 spacecraft into orbit, including the company’s first Phase 1 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite, failed its mission on Nov. 28. The primary payload on the rocket, which lifted off from Russia’s new launch complex in Vostochny at 8:41 A.M. Moscow time, was a...

NASA has successfully launched for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) the first in a series of four polar-orbiting satellites, equipped with next-generation technology and designed to improve the accuracy of U.S. weather forecasts out to seven days. The Joint Polar Satellite System 1 (JPSS 1) lifted off on a United Launch Alliance Delta...

Nanosatellite launch company Vector announced it will explore an arrangement with Harris Corporation to establish commercial launch operations of the Vector-R launch vehicle at Harris Spaceport Systems on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The initial steps of the pathfinding operations at Space Launch Complex 8 feature a demonstration of a full-scale engineering development version...

At SatComRus 2017 in Moscow, the underlying theme was how Russian space companies could build for a more prosperous future. However, SpaceX was mentioned a number of times as both an inspiration, and an example of a space company setting a new agenda...

Thales Alenia Space has signed a contract with ArianeGroup — prime contractor and design authority of the upcoming Ariane 6 rocket — to design, develop, qualify and manufacture the telemetry transmitter of the new European launch vehicle. The telemetry transmitter is responsible for transmitting to the ground the data generated by the launcher throughout the...

Orbital ATK successfully launched an Antares rocket carrying a Cygnus spacecraft on Nov. 12 from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia.

Since 2014, China has allowed private companies to build and launch their own satellites. Compared to the United States though, the trickle of venture capitalist funds has been slow to flow — but that could soon change as the Chinese government works to coordinate technological capabilities across civil and military space. Read more at the...