Launch

Japanese satellite operator Sky Perfect JSAT signed a launch service contract with SpaceX to launch its Superbird-9 satellite on the Starship rocket. This is the first public announcement of a commercial Starship launch contract.  JSAT announced Thursday that Superbird-9 will be launched by the Starship launch vehicle in 2024 to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). “SKY...

Virgin Orbit has moved a step closer to launching from South Korea. J-Space, the South Korean investment group, signed a deal with Virgin Orbit which will see the two companies assess candidate spaceport launch sites in South Korea, with the goal of providing satellite launch services from the country using Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne System. The...

SpaceX launch capacity for its dedicated smallsat rideshare missions on the Falcon 9 is full through 2023 and “pretty full” in 2024 as the missions are in high demand, Jarrod McLachlan, SpaceX director of rideshare sales, told SmallSat attendees on Tuesday.  Smallsat companies hoping to get to orbit in 2023 and 2024 should still reach...

Viasat reported a small increase in overall revenues, but a net loss for the company’s first quarter 2023 results, released Aug. 8. Revenues for the three months was $678 million, a 2% increase compared to the same stage last year. However, the company reported a net loss of $22 million for the period. However, there...

Northrop Grumman has teamed up with Firefly Aerospace to provide an American-built first-stage upgrade for the Antares rocket and a new medium-lift launch vehicle to serve commercial, civil, and national security space launch markets. The two companies announced the collaboration Aug. 8. The 200 series of the Antares rocket, developed Orbital Sciences Corporation, now part...

This episode of On Orbit is being released on a big news day for U.S. space rideshare provider, Spaceflight Inc. Spaceflight has shipped its brand new fully integrated Sherpa-LTC orbital transfer vehicle to Cape Canaveral for launch on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and signed a deal with Arianespace to launch on Vega missions as soon as...

Astra Space is ending use of its Rocket 3.3 iteration after two launch failures and moving to the next version of its launch system.  The rocket, part of Space Launch System 1.0, successfully reached orbit in a mission for the U.S. Space Force in November and then again in a March mission. But the rocket...

The U.S. Space Force on Aug. 4 launched the sixth Lockheed Martin Space Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (SBIRS GEO)-6 satellite, the final planned SBIRS missile warning satellite, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Northrop Grumman built the SBIRS GEO payloads. “The need for Overhead Persistent Infrared...

Rocket Lab successfully launched the second of two back-to-back national security missions for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) on an Electron rocket that took off early Thursday morning from Pad B at the Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1. The rocket carried the NROL-199 payload designed, built, and operated by the NRO in partnership with the...

Inmarsat has confirmed that its I-6 F1 satellite has reached Geostationary Orbit (GEO) and begun on-orbit testing. The satellite, the size of a London double-decker bus, with a solar array ‘wingspan’ larger than a Boeing 767, was launched by MHI in Japan in December 2021. The satellite is carrying both L-band and Ka-band payloads, and...