Launch

Spaceflight, a satellite rideshare and mission management provider, shared at Euroconsult’s World Satellite Business Week (WSBW) conference that it has procured upcoming launches to Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) – a popular destination for communications satellites. The company anticipates offering rideshare opportunities to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) approximately every 12-18 months, or as customer demand requires. The...

Arianespace and Eutelsat Communications have concluded a long-term multiple-launch service agreement during World Satellite Business Week in Paris. The agreement covers five launches until 2027 and will provide Eutelsat with assured access to space with schedule flexibility at cost effective prices. With this agreement, Eutelsat is the first commercial customer to sign up to Ariane...

SpaceX successfully launched a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station today, carrying Telesat‘s new Telstar 18 Vantage high throughput satellite (HTS). Built by SSL, a Maxar Technologies company, Telstar 18 Vantage is the third HTS in Telesat’s global fleet. Telstar 18 Vantage will replace and expand on the capabilities of Telesat’s...

Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, a U.S. national security solutions provider, was awarded an $11 million contract by Kacific Broadband Satellites, to design and build ground stations for Kacific’s new Ka-band High Throughput Satellite (HTS) network. The Kacific-1 High Throughput Satellite (HTS), launching in 2019, will deliver broadband services to Pacific Rim and South East Asia. Kratos will help address...

Airbus is sending a new life support rack to the International Space Station (ISS). The rack, also known as the Advanced Closed Loop System (ACLS), has been developed by Airbus for the European Space Agency (ESA) as a technology demonstrator, which will purify air and produce oxygen for the ISS. The life support rack is...

The integration of Sentinel-6A, the first of two satellites to continue measuring sea levels from 2020, has reached a new milestone and its critical phase: the propulsion module has been mated with the main structure of the satellite at Airbus.  In a complex operation, the Airbus satellite specialists hoisted the approximately five meter high satellite...

The first ViaSat-3 payload module structure, built by Boeing, arrived at Viasat‘s Tempe, Arizona facility. With the initial payload module structure now at Viasat’s facility, Viasat can begin payload integration and testing for the first ViaSat-3 class satellite that is scheduled to provide broadband service over the Americas, starting in 2020. Viasat will build the...

The first of the U.S. Air Force‘s  GPS III satellites is making its way to the launch pad. On Aug. 20, Lockheed Martin shipped the U.S. Air Force’s first GPS III space vehicle (GPS III SV01) to Cape Canaveral for its expected launch in December. Designed and built at Lockheed Martin’s GPS III Processing Facility near...

Telesat‘s Telstar 19 Vantage high throughput satellite (HTS) entered commercial service and is fully operational at 63 degrees West. Telstar 19 Vantage was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on July 22, and will serve growing consumer, enterprise, and mobility markets across the Americas and Atlantic....

It’s hard luck for the hitchhiker who always seems to be on the road with too few vehicles, and who hardly ever lands a ride to the right place. This has been the fate for many smallsats. The large rockets to piggyback on have usually been aimed at different orbits, and don’t launch frequently enough...