A European Ariane 5 ECA on flight VA252 successfully launched the JCSAT 17 and GEO Kompsat 2B satellites into a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) at 2218 GMT on 18 February from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. The first satellite deployed was JCSAT...
Rocket Lab Rocket Lab has received a launch contract from NASA to carry the CAPSTONE, 12U CubeSat, to the Moon. The CAPSTONE satellite being built by Tyvak and Advanced Space, will be placed into a “near-rectilinear halo orbit” around the Moon. This is the...
During February, American launch services provider Spaceflight Inc. – part of Spaceflight Industries Inc – announced that it would be sold to a pair of Japanese companies. The companies buying Spaceflight are; Mitsui & Co., Ltd, and Yamasa Co., Ltd....
Launching at 2142 GMT, 6 February 2020, a Soyuz 2-1B rocket has carried 34 OneWeb satellites to LEO. The launch, which lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, was part of a contract signed between OneWeb and Arianespace. This mission, utilising one of the...
During January, Arianespace and the European Space Agency (ESA) announced the signature of a launch services contract for the Euclid satellite. The Euclid mission will utilize either a Soyuz or an Ariane 62 launch vehicle from the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s...
Start-up launch provider Firefly Aerospace might have “fire” in its title, but it did not want that on its rocket engines. On 22 January, it suffered a short engine bay fire during a hot-fire test of its Reaver Engine, which is planned for use in its Alpha rocket. The...
