Launch

It is the start of a crucial year for the United Kingdom’s blossoming space industry. The U.K. government has set out to build a strong and vibrant industry over the next decade, and the country could see the first satellites launched from its soil this year, U.K. Transport Minister Trudy Harrison told Via Satellite. In...

Thursday was a big day for commercial space launch in the U.S., as Virgin Orbit followed SpaceX’s rideshare mission from Florida in the morning with a launch from California in the afternoon.  The mission “Above the Clouds” took off at 1:38 p.m. PST from the Mojave Air and Space Port. In Virgin Orbit’s air-launch method,...

SpaceX performed its first rideshare mission of the year on Thursday morning, deploying 105 spacecraft on a Falcon 9 vehicle. The mission, dubbed Transporter-3, was the third in SpaceX’s dedicated rideshare program.  The Falcon 9 rocket took off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:25 a.m. EST....

Gilmour Space Technologies has successfully test fired one of the most powerful rockets ever developed in Australia, which takes it one step closer to launching Australia’s first orbital rocket. The company announced the successful test, Jan. 11. The company achieved an expected full thrust of 110 kilonewtons (or 25,000 pounds-force) over 75 seconds. Gilmour Space...

Inmarsat‘s I-6 F1 satellite has begun its Electric Orbit Raising (EOR) process to reach Geostationary Orbit (GEO), 36,000 km above the Earth. Inmarsat gave an update on the satellite Jan. 6, which Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) launched in December. I-6 F1 is Inmarsat’s first ever hybrid L- and Ka-band satellite, and the first of seven...

In another development that moves the United Kingdom closer to having native launch capabilities, a local government in Scotland is planning for a spaceport in Prestwick, Scotland.  Local government South Ayrshire Council announced Jan. 6 that it has started the process of submitting a formal planning application for the Prestwick Spaceport development. The proposal of...

SpaceX kicked off 2022 with a Starlink launch from Cape Canaveral on Thursday afternoon. The first SpaceX launch of the new year sent 49 satellites to Low-Earth Orbit (LEO).  The Falcon 9 rocket took off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 4:49 p.m. EST. The satellites were set to deploy about...

Arianespace has received launch contracts for four additional Galileo satellites, and two PLATiNO satellites, the French launcher announced Thursday.  This launch order for four Galileo satellites from the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) follows a launch order for another four Galileo satellites announced in October 2021.  These launches will take place from...

Spanish smallsat launcher in development PLD Space has closed a $28 million oversubscribed Series B funding round, the company announced at the end of 2021. Arcano Partners, Aciturri, and the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) led the round. With this, PLD Space has raised more than $50 million.  PLD Space, based in...

Rocket Lab‘s launch site at the Wallops Flight Facility on the eastern coast of Virginia is expected to see a launch in 2022, as Rocket Lab and NASA near completion of a new flight safety certification system. Launch Complex 2 will be the company’s first launch site in the United States. It was built specifically...