Launch

Rocket Lab is preparing for return to flight in August after its July 4 mission failed, losing payloads for customers Canon Electronics Inc., Planet, and In-Space. The smallsat launcher announced Friday that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has cleared a return to flight after an investigation.  Rocket Lab narrowed down the issue to a single...

United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully launched NASA’s Perseverance rover on Thursday, marking the culmination of years of work by thousands of people since the project was announced in 2012.  A ULA Atlas V 541 rocket took off from Space Launch Complex-41 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday at 7:50 a.m. EST. Spacecraft separation...

Eutelsat Communications and Intelsat secured the 48 degrees East orbital position for the EUTELSAT QUANTUM satellite, in which both operators have orbital rights. The satellite is well-suited for coverage in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at the 48 degrees East position, and it is expected to launch by the end of 2020....

Virgin Galactic unveiled the design of VSS Unity cabin on Tuesday in a virtual event, sharing images of what its commercial passenger space flight experience will look like.  The six seats are individually sized, and recline for G-force management, and to allow more room to float about the cabin when the flight reaches zero gravity....

Arianespace has confirmed that it will launch its next three satellites on an expanded Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou at approximately 5:29 p.m. Tuesday, July 28. This mission will take three critical spacecraft into orbit. The satellites to be launched are: Japan’s BSAT-4b, built by Maxar; Intelsat‘s Galaxy 30 UHD...

SpaceX successfully launched South Korea’s first military satellite, Anasis-11, on a Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket took off at approximately 5:30 p.m. EST Monday from the company’s Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The satellite separated from its rocket at an altitude of about 630 kilometers. Anasis-11 is scheduled...

Airbus is ready to commence operational services on its EDRS-C satellite after completing in-orbit tests and establishing laser communications links to the European Space Agency (ESA) Copernicus Earth observation spacecraft, the manufacturer announced. Launched in August 2019 and located at the 31 degrees East orbital slot, EDRS-C will serve as the second node of Airbus’...

Virgin Galactic has hired Disney executive Michael Colglazier as the company’s new CEO. Colglazier has decades of experience at Disney, and was most recently president and managing director of Disney Parks International, where he was responsible for operations, strategy, and commercial and experiential development of Disney’s international parks and resorts. “Like so many others, including...

SatRevolution revealed an Earth Observation (EO) shared services mission to launch in the middle of 2021. The 2021 mission, called STORK, will closely follow the SatRevolution’s mission SW1FT (Swift), which will launch this December on SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare launch. Both missions are equipped with SatRevolution’s optical payload Vision 300, capable of capturing images of...

Spaceflight revealed Wednesday that it will be flying its next generation orbital transfer vehicle, Sherpa-FX, on a fully dedicated rideshare mission with SpaceX. The mission, called SXRS-3 by Spaceflight, is scheduled to launch on a Falcon 9 no earlier than December 2020. Spaceflight has contracted 16 spacecraft for this mission from organizations including iQPS, Loft...