Launch

Northrop Grumman Corporation launched a spacecraft for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) on Wednesday on its Minotaur IV launch vehicle. The launch took off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at 9:46 a.m. EDT.  This was the NRO’s first dedicated mission from NASA Wallops Flight Facility, and the NRO’s third launch of 2020. It...

“We were looking at the telemetry and going — ‘This isn’t right. This isn’t right. Something is definitely going wrong,’” said Doug Liddle, CEO of In-Space, recounting what it was like to watch his team’s satellite be lost in real time.  The U.K. startup’s satellite was lost when the Rocket Lab July 4 mission “Pics...

Skyrora has established an engine test complex in Scotland, and the complex has already seen the successful testing of two engines. The U.K.-based smallsat launcher said Tuesday that the complex , which includes a fuel and oxidiser loading system to put fuel into both tanks and a pressure supply system to feed the fuel to...

The first flight of the Chinese rocket Kuaizhou-11 carrier rocket carrying two satellites failed on Friday, Chinese state media reports. The rocket was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 12:17 p.m. (CST), but a malfunction occurred during the flight.  “The specific cause of the failure is under further analysis and...

United States space companies are hoping to get more help against foreign competitors through financing from the U.S. Export-Import Bank, a federal lending agency that SpaceX pointed to on Thursday as a substantial supporter in recent years. “To-date, EXIM has been very supportive of SpaceX’s effort to win international business and we’re grateful for that …...

The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected Airbus Defence and Space for major Copernicus environment missions, the agency announced Wednesday. Copernicus is the biggest provider of Earth Observation (EO) data in the world, and ESA develops, builds and launches the satellites. It also operates some of the missions and ensures the availability of data from...

NASA and Boeing’s major reviews of the company’s uncrewed Orbital Flight Test in December 2019 has concluded with 80 recommendations. The December flight test experienced an intermittent space-to-ground communication issue, and the spacecraft was not able to execute the orbital insertion burn required to meet its testing objective of docking with the International Space Station...

L3Harris Technologies has launched a satellite that is the latest in a demonstration series of end-to-end small satellites for a classified U.S. Air Force constellation. A representative for the company said Monday that limited details about the launch can be provided because the program is classified.  L3Harris said in a Monday release that as the...

Exolaunch signed launch agreements with NanoAvionics to launch two 6U nano-satellites aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rideshare missions. Under the contract, Exolaunch will provide launch, integration and deployment services to the NanoAvionics-built satellites. The first contracted spacecraft will be launched to a sun-synchronous orbit on the Falcon 9 smallsat-dedicated rideshare mission targeted for launch in December...

Rocket Lab’s “Pics Or It Didn’t Happen” mission on July 4 failed when the Electron vehicle experienced an anomaly after stage separation. The vehicle was lost, and payloads for Canon Electronics Inc., Planet, and Inspace were not delivered to orbit. The issue occurred approximately four minutes into the flight after the Electron rocket took off...