Launch

The demand for small satellite launches for both new installations and replacement missions is estimated to grow to 11,631 by 2030. This demand will derive primarily from commercial constellation operators and could take the market past the $62 billion mark, according to a recent Frost & Sullivan report titled, “Small Satellite Launch Services Market, Quarterly...

SpaceX has confirmed that the seventh Iridium Next mission has been slated to take place on July 20 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Falcon 9 rocket will launch 10 Iridium Next satellites to Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) at approximately 5:12 a.m. PDT (12:12 UTC). All 10 satellites for this mission will be deployed...

Swarm Technologies, the start-up that launched four satellites illegally in January, has filed a new application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to gain permission to launch a further three satellites despite no decision from the body on how their first indiscretion will be dealt with. The company has requested that it be permitted to...

Firefly Aerospace has appointed Leslie Kovacs as vice president of business development. Kovacs has more than 30 years of space launch industry experience, most recently at United Launch Alliance (ULA) as director of executive branch affairs, where he helped shape federal policy and acquisition approaches for the $57 billion Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. Kovacs will be based...

Japan has put another satellite into orbit to gather intelligence for national security purposes, as reported by NHK. An H2A rocket carrying the intelligence-gathering satellite lifted off from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima, southern Japan, on Tuesday. It put the satellite into orbit some 20 minutes later, however, other launch details have not been disclosed...

Government representatives from Brazil and the United States will resume negotiations that failed 15 years ago to allow the U.S. to use Brazil’s Alcantara Launch Base for its satellites. The decision to rekindle stalled talks followed a meeting between Brazil’s Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on June 4. Unlike...

Spaceflight, a satellite rideshare and mission management provider, has partnered with Rocket Lab for three upcoming launches. The first Electron mission, scheduled for the end of 2018, will launch a BlackSky microsat along with several rideshare customers. The second mission will launch satellites from commercial and government organizations in early 2019, and the third mission,...

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted authorization to SES to serve the United States market using a significantly expanded O3b fleet in the Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). The FCC grant opens additional frequencies to SES for use in its Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) constellation and enables it to deploy O3b mPower satellites into inclined...

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted a license to Audacy that authorizes the space communications company operate the world’s first commercial inter-satellite data relay network. The data relay network will utilize two ground stations, in San Francisco and Singapore, as well as three Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites scheduled to launch in 2019....

SES has announced that SES-12 has been successfully launched today onboard a flight-proven SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) in Cape Canaveral in Florida. Liftoff occurred at 12:45 a.m. EDT and the satellite was deployed about 32 minutes after liftoff. SES-12, which is designed with wide beams and high throughput beams,...