Finance

[Via Satellite 03-10-2015] Within the next couple of months Sea Launch plans to announce a big decision influencing the future of the company. Since the last launch of the Zenit 3SL rocket with the 6-ton Eutelsat 3b satellite in May 2014, there has been a gap in launch activity that put the company in a...

[Via Satellite 03-06-2015] Publishing the outcome of a 3-month spaceport consultation with a range of interested parties, the U.K. government confirmed widespread support for its plans. This paves the way toward making commercial spaceflight operations in the U.K. a reality. The U.K. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had shortlisted a number of possible locations for the...

[Via Satellite 03-03-2015] Rocket Lab, developer of the dedicated small satellite launch vehicle Electron, has closed its Series B funding round, which the company expects will complete the Electron launch system, enabling commercial operations in 2016. Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) along with previous investors Khosla Ventures and K1W1 supported the round, and Lockheed Martin has...

[Via Satellite 03-02-2015] At 10:50 p.m. EST March 1, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the ABS 3A satellite for Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) and the Eutelsat 115 West B satellite for Eutelsat. The two Boeing-built, all-electric spacecraft launched as a conjoined stack, mark the first part of a four satellite, two launch, multi-party...

[Via Satellite 02-25-2015] SES has awarded launches for two of its three recently announced satellites to SpaceX. Of the recently announced SES, 14, 15 and 16/GovSat, SES 14 and 16 will liftoff on Falcon 9 missions in 2017. The contracts further tighten the satellite operator’s relationship with SpaceX, whose ability to launch to Geostationary Transfer...

[Via Satellite 02-25-2015] Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) has launched a Cryofenix sounding rocket from the Esrange Space Center in Sweden filled with liquid hydrogen to study the propellant’s behavior in microgravity. The French space agency CNES and partner Air Liquide Advanced Technologies conducted the experiment and will use the data to validate and refine simulation...

[Via Satellite 02-18-2015] Swiss Space Systems (S3) has inaugurated a new subsidiary in Croatia, where the company hopes to build a spaceport as well as a facility for manufacturing the upper stage of the SOAR launch vehicle. S3’s suborbital SOAR shuttle is a reusable small satellite launch vehicle currently in Research and Development (R&D). The...

[Via Satellite 02-13-2015] Boosted by its contract to launch satellites for OneWeb’s ambitious 648 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) telecommunications satellite constellation, Virgin Galactic has opened a new facility to increase the production of LauncherOne rockets. The facility is located at Long Beach Airport in California, where it can be flown along with customers’ satellites using...

[Via Satellite 02-06-2015] The United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) plans to conduct 12 orbital test launches of an Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) integrated prototype system starting in 2016. The project, now in its second phase with Boeing as the prime contractor, seeks to drastically bring down the cost of orbiting...

[Via Satellite 02-02-2015] Inmarsat’s second Global Xpress (GX) High Throughput Satellite (HTS) Inmarsat 5 F2 launched Feb. 1 aboard a Proton rocket from International Launch Services (ILS). The operator acquired the first signals at its Paumalu, Hawaii, ground station and ILS confirmed the spacecraft separated cleanly. Built on the Boeing 702 High Power (HP) platform,...