SSI News
ORBCOMM enters into deal to be purchased by investment firm, company valued at US$1.1 billion
ORBCOMM announced on 8 April that it had entered into an agreement to be bought by fellow American company GI Partners. GI, a private investment firm based in California, is looking to expand its "data infrastructure" portfolio. The terms of the transaction value...
April marks another Falcon 9 launch of 60 Starlink satellites
SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9v1.2 Block 5 vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA at 1634 GMT on 7 April 2020. The launch carried 60 Starlink satellites. The B1058 first stage of the vehicle on its seven flight made a successful landing on the drone barge...
Crew Dragon Resilience (Crew 1) makes a repositioning move around ISS
There have been lots of comings and goings on the International Space Station (ISS) during April. The SpaceX Crew Dragon Reslience being flown as part of the NASA Crew 1 mission - undocked from ISS from Harmony module's forward docking port at 1030 GMT on 4 April...
Coup for ABL as it announces Lockheed Martin order for 58 of its launches
Lockheed Martin’s primary interest in large rocket launches is via its half share (with Boeing) in the United Launch Alliance (ULA), but it is striking out with a different partner, the small launch vehicle provider ABL Space Systems. Lockheed Martin has contracted...
Long March 4C launches Gaofen 12 (02)
A Long March 4C (CZ-4C) rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan launch site in North West China to launch the Gaofen 12 (02) high resolution Earth observation satellite into orbit at 2245 GMT on 30 March. The spacecraft was placed into a circa 600 km near polar...
Perseverance rover’s drone helicopter aptly named Ingenuity spreads its wings/rotors ready for its first flight
NASA Mars rover Perseverance gently drops its drone helicopter Ingenuity to the ground. A full flight test of the drone is due to take place in April - probably around 8 April. This will become the first aircraft to have worked extra-terrestrially excepting the...
HydroGNSS construction order goes to SSTL as ESA Scout mission
ESA has selected SSTL to build and operate a 40 kg spacecraft for its HydroGNSS mission under its Scout programme. The €30 million HydroGNSS mission uses GNSS Reflectometry for hydrological measurements. In effect it uses signals from GPS and Galileo, as radar...
Newspace launcher activity: Rocket Lab multi-launch contract, ABL Series B funding
On 25 March 2021 BlackSky Global, through its launch services provider Spaceflight Inc., signed a multi-launch contract with Rocket Lab covering nine of its Earth observation satellites. As per the contract Rocket Lab will conduct at least five Electron missions...
Airbus lands first commercial GEO contract in Japan from Sky Perfect JSAT
European satellite manufacturer Airbus DS has been selected by Japanese satellite operator Sky Perfect JSAT Corp to build its Superbird-9 satellite. The contract was awarded on 25 March 2021. Airbus will provide Sky Perfect JSAT with one of its new digitally...
UK launch providers Orbex and Skyrora get £8.5 million boost from ESA
Nascent Scotland-based small launch providers Orbex and Skyrora,have received £8.5 million IN funding under the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Boost! initiative to develop their launch technologies and help bring their rockets to operational status. Orbex, an orbital...
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