Launch

Firefly Aerospace is acquiring smallsat rideshare company Spaceflight for an undisclosed amount, and will end Spaceflight’s rideshare business after its current contracts. The company announced the deal last week on June 8, highlighting Spaceflight’s proven orbital transfer vehicles and experience in mission management as reasons for the acquisition. “We’re currently assessing the needs of our...

The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) has assigned 12 National Security Space Launch (NSSL) missions to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) — six for each provider — under the fiscal 2023 NSSL Phase 2 Launch Service Procurement contract, SSC said on June. Under SSC’s newly announced assignments, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets will launch three Low-Earth...

SpaceX launched Arabsat’s Badr-8 telecommunications satellite in a Falcon 9 mission over the weekend from Cape Canaveral. Manufacturer Airbus confirmed the satellite is now on its way to its final position at 26 degrees East in Geostationary Orbit (GEO).  Badr-8 will join the satellite operator’s Badr-network at the 26 degrees East hotspot, expanding service over...

It could be another two to three years before another rocket launches from Spaceport Cornwall after the failed Virgin Orbit mission, says outgoing leader Melissa Quinn, who recently announced she will be leaving her role as head of the spaceport. Quinn told Via Satellite in an interview that the spaceport is taking a “wait and...

The past few years has seen an upsurge in activity in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO), led by megaconstellations of broadband satellites from SpaceX’s Starlink and OneWeb, followed by flocks of Earth observation, IoT, and military satellites. Within the next decade, Amazon’s Project Kuiper and Telesat’s Lightspeed constellations will send even more smallsats into that orbit. Meanwhile,...

Rocket Lab, Launcher, and Stratolaunch have won bids to purchase assets from Virgin Orbit, according to bankruptcy filings released Tuesday. The auction took place on May 22, and the sale hearing took place Wednesday afternoon in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Virgin Orbit will cease operations with the sale. Rocket Lab...

SpaceX’s Saturday launch lofted satellites for both Iridium and OneWeb. The mission deployed five spare satellites for Iridium’s Low-Earth Orbit constellation, and 19 more OneWeb satellites.  Both operators confirmed post-launch that the mission was successful. The Falcon 9 mission took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the West Coast at 6:16 a.m. PT on...

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in April proposed new legislative authorities that would allow it to begin charging commercial launch providers additional costs for the use of its spaceports to help the U.S. Space Force finance operations to keep pace with surging commercial demand for its facilities. The increasing commercial demand for the spaceports...

Arianespace has set a target date of June 16 for the final Ariane 5 mission, retiring Europe’s workhorse heavy-lift rocket.  The mission will launch two satellites — Syracuse 4B, built by Airbus Defence and Space for the French government’s defense procurement and technology agency DGA, and the Heinrich-Hertz-Mission, built by OHB for the German space...

A task force for the Ariane 6 rocket provided an update on the vehicle’s progress toward first flight on Friday, reporting vehicle assembly is not expected to start until November 2023.  The European Space Agency (ESA) and Arianespace have said that Ariane 6 will make its debut by the end of 2023, but this new...