Launch

SpaceX continued its rapid launch cadence for Starlink missions, launching the fourth batch of satellites this month in an early morning launch on Wednesday. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 Starlink satellites took off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 4:28 a.m. on March 24.  Stage separation occurred about 2:30...

With its latest mission “They Go Up So Fast,” Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket has now deployed 104 small satellites. The launch marked a milestone for the company that has set out an ambitious path to grow into an end-to-end space solutions company with turnkey satellites and spacecraft components, on-orbit operations, data services and addition to...

NanoAvionics is expanding its offering of satellite buses with a larger microsat bus size, the MP42, a move the company said will help it capture a larger share of the smallsat market.  CEO Vytenis Buzas spoke with Via Satellite about NanoAvionics expansion into this size of satellite. He said the company started out with the...

Inmarsat has won a new deal with the UK Space Agency, a National Space Innovation Programme (NSIP) contract to develop an in-orbit telemetry relay service for rockets called InRange. The contract announced, announced Friday, is valued at 258,000 pounds ($359,785) with matched funding from industry, taking the project total to 422,096 pounds ($588,619). Inmarsat’s InRange...

New Zealand-based smallsat launcher Rocket Lab made headlines earlier this month when it announced plans to go public through a special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC) and set a $4.1 billion valuation on the company. It also shared its plans to build a reusable, medium-lift vehicle called Neutron, with an 8-ton payload capacity. The decision to...

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has renewed the launch operator license of Orbital Sciences for its Pegasus launch vehicle, the administration announced Wednesday.  The renewed licenses are valid for five years. They authorize the company to conduct flights from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Orbital...

SpaceX hit a new reusability milestone with its Starlink mission on Sunday, March 14, flying and landing a Falcon 9 booster for the ninth time.  The booster used in the mission had its first flight on March 2, 2019 in the NASA Crew Dragon Demo-1 mission, five prior Starlink launches, and missions for Canadian Space...

Relativity Space has been awarded its first launch contract with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the company announced Monday. The contract is a Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) Launch Enterprise follow-up effort to the DoD Space Test Program Rapid Agile Launch Initiative. This initiative looks to identify commercial solutions for low-cost, responsive access...

SpaceX launched another batch of 60 Starlink satellites early on Thursday morning as it increases the service area of its Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation. This week, SpaceX launched in beta testing in Germany and New Zealand, and is expanding beta service in the United Kingdom, SpaceX engineer Jessie Anderson said during Thursday’s launch broadcast.  A...

Aerojet Rocketdyne said Tuesday evening that its stockholders have approved the $4.4 billion sale of the company to Lockheed Martin, clearing a hurdle on the deal that is still expected to close in the second half of 2021. Lockheed Martin announced the deal in December, and said it will lead to better integrated end products and...