Satellite Industry Intelligence Since 1983
Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) has successfully launched their Minotaur II rocket for the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) in support of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Near-Field Infrared Experiment (NFIRE).
Read MoreIntelsat, Ltd., announced today that at 5:28 a.m. EDT the Galaxy 19 satellite was successfully launched aboard a Sea Launch Zenit-3SL rocket. The satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral, will operate from 97 West, replacing the Galaxy 25 spacecraft. Galaxy 19 will provide 50-state coverage, in addition to reaching the Caribbean, Canada and Mexico, to video, government and network customers.
Read MoreStandard procedures of the Flight 4 of Falcon 1 include rigorous testing. On Saturday we reported that the testing took place and reports were to be available soon. The results are in and, as expected, no major issues came up.
Read MoreA contract on Saturday, September 20, for the acquisition of ten Soyuz launch vehicles was signed between Ariane
Read MoreSuccess for International Launch Services (ILS) Proton Breeze M launch vehicle carrying the Nimiq 4 satellite into space for Telesat at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan at 3:48 a.m. today local time (5:48 p.m. Friday EDT, 21:48 Friday GMT). This was the fourth launch of the year, and 47th overall, for ILS.
Read MoreIt's become a routine, and a successful one at that for the SpaceX team at the Kwajalein Atoll of the Marshall Islands. A static flight was conducted today, Saturday, of the Falcon 1 Flight 4, and launch is planned for sometime between Tuesday and Thursday (California time).
Read MoreNASA would be the first one to tell you that it takes a ton of help to get their rockets out the door and up into space, and so it goes with the Ares I rocket. Described as America's next flagship in space, the Ares I is now in development by NASA and its industry partners, to carry human explorers and new missions of discovery to the moon and beyond.
Read MoreSpace Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has been granted an Operational License by the U.S. Air Force for the use of Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the Florida coast. Receipt of the license, in conjunction with the approved Site Plan, paves the way for SpaceX to initiate Falcon 9 launch operations later this year.
Read MoreGeoEye-1 satellite, designed and built by General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, has a big job ahead of it after its launch on Thursday, September 4, from Space Launch Complex-2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), California. The satellite will be able to see an object the size of home plate on a baseball diamond but also map the location of an object that size to within about nine feet (three meters) of its true location on the surface of the Earth without need for ground control points. Together, GeoEye's IKONOS and GeoEye-1 satellites can collect almost one million square kilometers of imagery per day.
Read MoreA major accomplishment, to be sure as the five-satellite RapidEye constellation was successfully launched onboard Dnepr from Baikonur, Kazakhstan at 0715 UTC today. Following this morning's launch, the spacecraft separated from the launch vehicle in slightly different orbits to allow constellation phasing and will eventually be positioned equally spaced within the same orbit about 19 minutes apart.
Read More
Satnews is a leading provider of satellite news, events, publications, research and other satellite industry information in both commercial and military enterprises worldwide.