Launch

SES celebrated the start of a new era for the company on Friday evening, with the launch of its first O3b mPOWER satellites. The Boeing-built satellites will bring orders of magnitude more capacity to the market than its predecessor, O3b.  SpaceX launched the first two satellites of the constellation on Dec. 16 at 5:48 p.m....

Arianespace launched satellites for Europe and Intelsat in a triple-payload Ariane 5 mission on Tuesday. The mission, one of the last for the Ariane 5 rocket, launched the MTG-I1 meteorological satellite and two C-band satellites from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana at 3:30 p.m. ET. One satellite, MTG-I1 — Meteosat Third Generation Imager — is for...

Euroconsult estimates that more than 2,500 satellites will be launched on average every year between now and 2031, driven by commercial constellations. The consulting firm released its flagship report, Satellites to be Built and Launched, on Monday.  Governments as the customer will remain a large driver of demand. Euroconsult estimates that 72% of market value...

SpaceX performed its first mission for OneWeb on Thursday, sending 40 satellites to Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) on a Falcon 9 rocket. The mission notable in two ways — it was SpaceX’s first launch for Starlink broadband competitor OneWeb, and OneWeb’s second mission since resuming its launch campaign after Russia’s war in Ukraine stymied its Soyuz missions...

Boeing has delivered the first two O3b mPOWER satellites for SES ahead of launch, Boeing announced Monday. The satellites are now in Florida being prepared for launch. SpaceX is set to launch the satellites no earlier than Dec. 15, SES confirmed to Via Satellite on Monday. The satellites are based on Boeing’s 702 platform. They...

Rocket Lab has created a U.S. subsidiary to serve the U.S. defense and intelligence community, Rocket Lab National Security LLC (RLNS), the company announced Dec. 1.  Rocket Lab was founded in New Zealand and operates launch activities out of New Zealand, but is registered in the United States with the full name Rocket Lab USA,...

OQ Technology has announced that its ‘MACSAT’ mission supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) will launch in March on a Vega-C rocket. The company announced the launch window Dec. 1. The company is a satellite cellular 5G IoT operator that aims to provide global cellular Internet-of-Things and machine-to-machine...

Intelsat has tapped Arianespace to launch two software-defined satellites, IS-41 and IS-44, on an Ariane 6 rocket in 2025. The companies announced the launch agreement on Wednesday. Arianespace said the agreement repurposes a previous launch contract and adds one additional satellite. The mission will use the Ariane 64 configuration of the Ariane 6, the more...

The European Commission procured five Vega C launches from Arianespace for the Copernicus program, Arianespace announced Tuesday. Arianespace will launch five Sentinel satellites for the Copernicus program from French Guiana between 2024 and 2026. Copernicus is the European Union’s Earth observation program which monitors the atmosphere, ocean, climate change, land use, and more. It currently...

The ViaSat-3 Americas satellite has completed its final integrated satellite test (FIST), Viasat confirmed Monday. This ensures the satellite’s payload and bus systems work after mechanical environmental testing, which simulated the launch of the spacecraft. The satellite has now progressed to the flight final phase of integration where it is undergoing final build-up to its...