Launch

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has designated Mitsubishi Electric as the prime contractor of the new satellite for Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-2, Mitsubishi Electric announced on Sunday.  Mitsubishi Electric aims to establish a standardized platform for designing, manufacturing, and operating small 100 kg-class satellites incorporating standard parts for functions such as attitude control and power...

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft landed at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico on Sunday, bringing an end to NASA‘s Orbital Flight Test, which missed its objective to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) because a necessary orbital burn did not happen after the launch on Friday, Dec. 20. The uncrewed mission for NASA’s...

The iteration of HTS systems promise big. Here’s a short list of high-profile developments in HTS from satellite manufacturers: Thales Alenia Space: Eutelsat Communications ordered a next-generation VHTS satellite system named Konnect VHTS in 2018 to support the development of its European fixed broadband and in-flight connectivity. The satellite, due to enter into service in...

There’s no shortage of excitement about the coming new space decade, from the U.S. priority to get back to the moon, to the launch of the first Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband mega-constellations. As the countdown to 2020 begins, the industry could see hundreds, even thousands, of satellites being launched. Amid this high-throughput satellite revolution, manufacturing...

Reach, performance and flexibility augmenting the end-to-end fiber infrastructure – this is how SES Networks Executive Vice President Stewart Sanders describes the unique characteristics of the operator’s O3b mPOWER managed network service. Enabled by an upcoming medium-Earth orbit (MEO) constellation, O3b mPOWER is designed as a high-capacity, low-latency, flexible satellite-based data communications system that includes...

NASA has selected United Launch Alliance (ULA) to provide launch services for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-T (GOES-T) mission, the agency announced on Wednesday. The GOES-T mission aims to provide advanced imagery and atmospheric measurements of Earth’s weather, oceans, and environment, real-time mapping of total lightning activity, and improved monitoring of solar activity, and space...

Arianespace launched five payloads on a Soyuz rocket on Wednesday, Dec. 18, at 8:54 UTC from the Guiana Space Center (CSG) in Kourou, French Guiana, including COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation and CHEOPS. It was Arianespace’s 23rd launch of the Soyuz medium-lift launcher from CSG. The rocket carried a total payload of 3,065 kg. The launch had...

GomSpace (GS) and Lockheed Martin Space will develop and deliver a GS 6U nanosatellite to Orbital Micro Systems (OMS) in the United Kingdom, the companies announced Wednesday, Dec. 18. The contract is worth $1.8 million and will be financed through an industrial corporation commitment made by Lockheed Martin to the state of Denmark.  OMS, which...

SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the JCSAT-18/Kacific-1 satellite from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Monday, Dec. 16, at 7:10 p.m. EST. It was SpaceX’s 13th launch of the year. The JCSAT-18/Kacific-1 was placed into its target geostationary transfer orbit 33 minutes following initial ignition....

Capella Space announced Monday that in 2020, it will launch seven Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites and start commercial operations. The company bills itself as the first small satellite SAR company in the industry to capture sub-0.5 m Very High-Resolution (VHR) imagery. Capella is fully funded to complete its seven-satellite constellation launch in 2020, with...