Launch

Draper unveiled its team for the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract. Under the proposal, the team will support NASA in the delivery of small rovers and instruments to meet lunar science and exploration needs, advance development of lunar landers for human missions, and conduct more research on the moon’s surface ahead of a human...

SpaceX‘s seventeenth launch in 2018 was a success, also signifying the first land landing on the United States’ west coast. The space company successfully launched the SAOCOM 1A satellite on Sunday, Oct. 7 at 10:21 p.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The satellite was launched on a...

Thales Alenia Space, the joint company between Thales and Leonardo, signed a contract with OHB System AG for the new European Space Agency (ESA) program PLATO (Planetary Transits and Oscillations of stars). OHB System AG will be the prime contractor, with Thales Alenia Space as a partner. PLATO will be the third medium-class (M3) science...

Raytheon delivered the first Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements (SeeMe), satellite to the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Assembled on the company’s missile production lines, the new SeeMe satellite aims to provide greater situational awareness to soldiers on the ground. DARPA’s SeeMe program is designed to show that small satellites can be built...

RUAG Space signed a cooperation agreement with Italian space company Siatel as the two companies work together on a key European space program. RUAG Space will provide payload electronics for testing purposes that will fly on the first Striving small satellite being launched on the Vega SSMS POC flight in 2019. The Striving satellite will offer commercial services...

United Launch Alliance‘s (ULA) selected Blue Origin‘s BE-4 engine for Vulcan Centaur’s booster stage. The Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)-fueled booster will be powered by a pair of BE-4 engines, each producing 550,000 pounds of sea level thrust. As previously announced, ULA has selected Aerojet Rocketdyne‘s RL10 engine for the Centaur upper stage, Northrop Grumman solid rocket...

We talk to Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israël about what the milestone 100th Ariane 5 mission means for Arianespace and the legacy of this iconic rocket, his view of the future of satellite launch, and get a sneak peek at some new developments regarding the upcoming Ariane 6 rocket. Israël was named CEO of Arianespace in...

Blue Origin has won a major contract award from United Launch Alliance (ULA) to produce and deliver a first-stage engine for ULA’s new Vulcan rocket, according to sources referenced in a story published by the Wall Street Journal and then confirmed by the Washington Post. Wall Street Journal writers Andy Pasztor and Doug Cameron reported that...

Ireland Minister for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research, and Development John Halligan revealed that Ireland’s first ever satellite, Educational Irish Research Satellite-1 (EIRSAT-1 ), successfully completed the first phase of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Fly Your Satellite! Program (FYS) and the Critical Design Review – moving one step closer to launch. Minister Halligan made the announcement...

Capella Space, an aerospace and information services company providing on-demand Earth observation data, closed $19 million Series B funding led by Spark Capital and DCVC (Data Collective) and joined by Mark VC and Harmony Partners, among other investors. This will finance the first operational launches of the company’s cloud-penetrating, radar-powered small satellites, designed to deliver high-quality...