Finance

[Via Satellite 05-28-2015] Orbital ATK anticipates opportunities to bid on another six satellite opportunities this year, and continues to expect in its launch business to see the first flight of the re-engined Antares rocket in March 2016. In the company’s first post-merger quarterly earnings call, David Thompson, CEO of Orbital ATK told investors that commercial...

[Via Satellite 05-28-2015] Arianespace successfully launched two satellites for DirecTV on May 27 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. The mission carried the DirecTV 15 satellite, built by Airbus Defence and Space on the Eurostar E3000 platform, and the Sky Mexico 1 (SKYM 1) satellite built on Orbital ATK’s GEOStar 2 platform. DirecTV plans to use...

[Via Satellite 05-27-2015] After a two-year effort, the United States Air Force has officially certified SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch system for national security space missions. SpaceX is now able to compete for these missions in the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program with current incumbent United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and...

[Via Satellite 05-22-2015] United Launch Alliance is gunning to make its next generation launch system, Vulcan, competitive enough to actively bid in the commercial launch market while keeping the Atlas 5 in play long enough to ensure a seamless transition. Vulcan, unveiled at the National Space Symposium earlier this year, conflates features from both current...

[Via Satellite 05-19-2015] X2nSat has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for the long-term lease of land and access to infrastructure for Spaceport America‘s new satellite gateway ground station development. The MOA lays the foundation for a long-term lease agreement with an anticipated finalization this summer. The station’s groundbreaking is planned for later this year,...

[Via Satellite 05-18-2015] Following the May 16 Proton Breeze M launch failure that claimed Mexico’s Centenario satellite, all involved parties have begun efforts to identify the cause of the incident and understand its effects. The mission, conducted by International Launch Services (ILS), suffered a launch anomaly during the rocket’s third stage operations approximately 490 seconds...

[Via Satellite 05-14-2015] On May 13, the U.S. Air Force released a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) for GPS 3 launch services, marking the first competition for launches in the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program in more than a decade. Launch services include production of the launch vehicle, mission integration and launch operations. The...

[Via Satellite 05-13-2015] The United States Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) and SpaceX have formally amended the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) for certifying the Falcon 9 launch system to compete for Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) contracts. The revised CRADA grafts in all the recommendations from the Independent Review Committee...

[Via Satellite 05-11-2015] XCOR Aerospace has bonded the XCOR Lynx Mark I strakes to the Lynx spacecraft fuselage. Lynx is a piloted, two-seat, fully reusable liquid rocket-powered vehicle that takes-off and lands horizontally. With the strakes bonded to Lynx, “we have an open path toward the integration of a number of subsystems, and this means...

[Via Satellite 05-08-2015] Ukraine has expressed its intention to continue with the Cyclone 4 launch vehicle program. Oleh Uruskyi, president of the State Space Agency of Ukraine, confirmed this during an April meeting with Alcantara Cyclone Space’s general assembly, and requested that Brazil inform Ukraine about its official position regarding continuation of the Cyclone 4...