Launch

Rocket Lab has won a key new launch contract with a customer in the Middle East. The company has signed an agreement with Circle Aerospace for ten dedicated Electron launches, with the first launch scheduled to lift off in Q4 2019. Headquartered in Dubai, Circle Aerospace is a new turnkey launch brokerage and satellite development company...

SpaceX has successfully launched a satellite for one of Asia’s biggest telcos. The company confirmed early this morning that its Falcon 9 had successfully lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida carrying the Merah Putih mission for PT Telkom Indonesia. The satellite was deployed approximately 32 minutes...

Aerojet Rocketdyne’s advanced tactical booster program has completed two successful hot-fire tests of a motor that had been conditioned to mimic extreme cold- and hot-soak conditions for air-launch application. The tests took place at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Edwards Air Force Base in California, the company confirmed. The solid rocket motor will...

With thousands of new small satellites waiting in line to be launched into orbit, Spaceflight President Curt Blake hopes his rideshare operation can push more operators through the bottleneck. Later this year, Spaceflight will launch the largest dedicated rideshare launch from a US-based launch vehicle in history. The “SSO-A: SmallSat Express” mission will take more...

Rideshare launch and mission management provider Spaceflight will launch more than 70 small satellites from nearly 35 different organizations on a dedicated SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base later this year. If successful, the “SSO-A: SmallSat Express” mission would be the largest dedicated rideshare launch from a US-based launch vehicle in history....

Euroconsult expects about 7,000 new smallsats to be launched over the next 10 years, representing a six-fold increase from the 1,200 units launched over the past decade. Spacecraft from 50 constellations and two mega constellations account for more than 80 percent of the 7,000 smallsats, according to the analyst firm’s latest report. The research highlights...

For the six months to the end of June, Telesat derived revenues of around CA$444 million ($341.23 million), a decrease of four percent compared to the first six months of 2017. Net loss for the six months stood at CA$21 million ($16.14 million). Telesat is the last of the big four operators to report its...

China launched Gaoefen-11, an optical remote sensing satellite, as part of its high-resolution Earth observation project. The Gaofen-11 satellite was launched yesterday on a Long March 4B rocket at 11 a.m. Beijing Time from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern Shanxi Province, according to the China Academy of Space Technology. The China Academy of...

Northrop Grumman launched its Cygnus spacecraft aboard an Antares rocket on Monday, which headed toward the International Space Station (ISS). Upon leaving the ISS, the spacecraft deployed six cube satellites from the attached Nanoracks deployer before performing a safe and destructive reentry into Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. This mission marks the company’s ninth...

This week was buzzing with rocket launches and global news. There was activity from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) launch site in South America, as well as multiple launches from SpaceX as it goes for two dozen flights this year, according to Ars Technica’s rocket report. Additionally, British rocket companies anticipate future government support, and...