Launch

Relativity Space recently completed a full-duration Mission Duty Cycle test of its Aeon 1 rocket engine. The company shared a Youtube video of the test at NASA‘s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi on Monday, reporting the integrated Aeon 1 rocket engine ran at full power for 187 seconds. This meets the full duration required for...

Executives from SpaceX, Telesat, Iridium and SES gathered virtually at World Satellite Business Week Virtual Edition hosted by Euroconsult on Tuesday, to discuss their different approaches with Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations. Telesat said it’s confident it will meet a buildout milestone to preserve its spectrum filings, and talked about the reality of SpaceX reaching its...

India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launched a national Earth Observation (EO) satellite along with nine satellites for international customers on Nov. 7. The mission, PSLV-C49 took off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Chennai, India on November Saturday. Earth Observation satellite EOS-01 was successfully injected into its orbit 15 minutes after liftoff. The...

A Chinese Long March 6 rocket delivered 10 Satellogic satellites to Sun-Synchronous Low-Earth Orbit at 3:18 a.m. UTC on Friday, November 6. It was Satellogic’s first dedicated launch and brings its fleet to 21 satellites, 14 of which are commercially operational.  Satellogic is a vertically Earth Observation (EO) company based in Argentina. It operates a...

Maxar Technologies on Thursday revealed financial results for its Third Quarter (Q3) 2020. The company reported a strong quarter with $436 million in revenue — an increase of $23 million compared to the same period in 2019. Net income was reported at $85 million, compared to Q3 2019 with a reported net loss of $26...

SpaceX launched the fourth Global Positioning System (GPS) III satellite on Thursday evening. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex (SLC)-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 6:24 p.m. ET, carrying GPS III Space Vehicle 04 (SV04) for the U.S. Space Force. The satellite separated at 1 hour and...

Rocket Lab is preparing to attempt to recover a stage of its Electron rocket after launch for the first time, the smallsat launcher announced Thursday. On the upcoming “Return to Sender” mission set for Nov. 15, Rocket Lab will attempt to recover the first stage by using a parachute system for a controlled water landing...

Lacuna Space completed in-orbit checks on Tuesday for an Internet of Things (IoT) small satellite launched on Sept. 28 by Roscosmos. The satellite payload and mission is a modified IoT gateway in space, and is built to connect Low-Power Wide Area Network protocol (LPWAN) sensors with the internet in remote, unconnected areas. This is Lacuna...

German rocket developer Rocket Factory Augsburg AG (RFA) is the first company to join the European Space Agency (ESA) launch support program. RFA announced Monday that it will receive $586,000 (500,000 euros) in ESA support for the development of the first stage demonstrator of its RFA ONE launch vehicle through Boost! — ESA’s Commercial Space Transportation...

Airbus on Tuesday revealed that the company will lead the European Space Agency (ESA) contract for the Traceable Radiometry Underpinning Terrestrial and Helio Studies (TRUTHS) satellite mission, phase A /B1, which includes system feasibility studies and pre-developments. This mission is part of the larger ESA Earth Observation Earth Watch program, and the contract is worth...