Finance

[Via Satellite 12-22-2014] The 6-ton Astra 2G satellite is scheduled to launch on Dec. 28, 2014 at 3:37 Baikonur Time aboard a Proton rocket through International Launch Services (ILS). Built for SES by Airbus Defence and Space, the Astra 2G satellite carries 62 Ku-band transponders and four Ka-band transponders for broadcast and broadband services in...

[Via Satellite 12-192014] In its 11th launch of the year, Arianespace successfully took four more satellites in the O3b Networks constellation to orbit. Using the Soyuz rocket from the Guiana Space Center, the flight follows the successful launches of the first eight O3b satellites in two batches in June 2013 and July 2014. The O3b...

[Via Satellite 12-17-2014] NASA has selected SpaceX to provide launch services for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. TESS will launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, with liftoff targeted for August 2017 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The total cost for NASA to launch TESS is approximately $87 million, which includes...

[Via Satellite 12-15-2014] The state-owned Alaska Aerospace Corporation (AAC), owner and operator of the Kodiak Launch Complex (KLC), has selected Lockheed Martin’s Athena launch vehicle to conduct the spaceport’s small and medium lift missions. The two are finalizing the scope of upgrades to enable Athena to handle a wider range of commercial and government payloads,...

[Via Satellite 12-15-2014] International Launch Services (ILS) has successfully launched Gazprom Space Systems’ Yamal 401 satellite aboard a Proton launch vehicle. The launch, which took place from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Dec. 14, was the 400th mission for Proton. ISS Reshetnev built the Yamal 401 satellite on the Express 2000-A platform in collaboration with Thales...

[Via Satellite 12-12-2014] NASA has awarded a $49 Million Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority of Norfolk, Virginia. The follow-on contract is to support the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport 3 (MARS 3)’s launch site services at Wallops Island, Va. The Virginia Spaceport was damaged during the Oct. 28. Orbital...

[Via Satellite 12-11-2014] Spaceflight Inc. has signed NovaWurks as a customer to launch the experimental eXCITe satlets on a 2015 Sherpa mission for the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). NovaWurks is building the modular spacecraft for the agency based on the company’s Hyper-Integrated Satlet, or HISat. Once in space, they can assemble...

[Via Satellite 12-10-2014] Orbital Sciences has contracted United Launch Alliance (ULA) to conduct the next commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) using an Atlas 5 rocket. The mission is scheduled to take place in the fourth quarter of 2015 from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Orbital Sciences has also included an option for a...

[Via Satellite 12-08-2014] China’s state-run news agency Xinhua reports the 200th launch of a Long March rocket occurred Sunday Dec. 7, carrying the Chinese-Brazilian Earth Resource Satellite (CBERS) on a Long March 4B. CBERS 4 is the fifth satellite in the Earth observation program. The satellite’s development was accelerated following a Long March 4B failure...

[Via Satellite 12-03-2014] Describing the move as near revolutionary, Jean Jacques Dordain, director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), said the agency is changing the governance arrangements of Europe’s next generation launchers letting industry take the lead. ESA member states made several key decisions on the successors to the Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega...