Launch

The first Kenya University Nano Satellite Precursor Flight (1KUNS-PF), Kenya’s first satellite, was successfully deployed from the Japan Space Agency (JAXA) KIBO deployment module aboard the International Space Station (ISS). 1KUNS-PF is a result of scientific and technological collaboration between the University of Nairobi, School of Engineering – the KiboCube Team, the United Nations Office for...

NanoRacks has been awarded the launch services and deployment contract for the Canadian CubeSat Project — a nationwide small satellite development program sponsored by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The project provides funding to post-secondary institutions in Canada as part of a challenge to design, build, launch, and operate their own satellites, which will be...

More than 20 teams have indicated they might participate in the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s (DARPA’s) Launch Challenge, a competition designed to promote rapid access to space for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). During the challenge, which is slated for late 2019, each participant will be expected to launch a payload into...

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket carrying NASA‘s InSight Mars lander lifted off from the Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex 3 on Saturday. InSight is the first mission launched to another planet from the West Coast, which requires more energy than an East Coast launch that takes advantage of the Earth’s rotation....

APT Satellite successfully launched the Apstar-6C into orbit with the Long March-3B (LM-3B) launch vehicle today from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province of China. Both the satellite and the rocket were developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CALT). Apstar-6C is the 12th satellite placed in-orbit under a contract between China...

It is unclear what exactly will happen to Swarm Technologies after launching its smallsats without government approval in January, but what is clear is the big communication gap between the government bodies that grant these approvals and the ones that fund projects like these. In Swarm’s case, the company had received contracts from NASA, the...

Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings has reported results for the first quarter ended March 31. Net income was $14 million, or $0.18 diluted income per share, compared with net income of $5.9 million, or $0.08 diluted income per share in 2017. Effective Jan. 1, the company adopted the new revenue recognition guidance. Consistent with the standard, net assets increased by $37.6 million, and $578 million of net sales were...

Firefly Aerospace, a developer of orbital launch vehicles for the small to medium satellite market, has announced that the United States Air Force (USAF) has issued a “Statement of Support for the Firefly Aerospace Program, Alpha and Beta launch vehicles” to use Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex 2 West (SLC-2W) for future launches...

A space vehicle that could one day be used for manned space travel has flown for the eighth time. In a successful launch, dubbed Mission 8 (M8), the New Shepard from Blue Origin, the company founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, blasted skywards from the firm’s West Texas Launch Site on Sunday. The crew capsule reached...

French space agency CNES has chosen the Space Alliance, formed by Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space, to extend the fiber-optic communications system (STFO) at the Guiana Space Center (CSG), Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, to include the new launch complex under construction for Ariane 6 (ELA4). CNES is in charge of the CSG ground segment....