by David Todd | Sep 14, 2016 | commercial launch services, Launches, Satellites, Seradata News, Virgin Galactic
Sky and Space Global has taken out a launch contract with start-up air launch operator Virgin Galactic for four launches on its LauncherOne vehicle, starting in 2018. The Launcher One, which is carried into the sky before an air-drop launch from a converted Boeing...
by David Todd | Sep 13, 2016 | commercial launch services, Launches, Russia
International Launch Services (ILS), the commercial marketing arm of the Russian rocket manufacturer Khrunichev, has announced that the Proton four-stage rocket is going to be modularised to offer a new family of smaller launch vehicles, in addition to a growth...
by David Todd | Sep 13, 2016 | commercial launch services, Launches, Seradata News, Technology
Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon and Blue Origin rocket entrepreneur, has released an image showing how his new LOx/Methane powered New Glenn rocket series stacks up in its two- and three- stage versions. And boy, are they big. The rocket series is named in honour of John...
by David Todd | Sep 12, 2016 | commercial launch services, Launches
Having had their proposed Alcantara launch site taken away from them by the Brazilian government in 2015, which did not want to invest any more funds, the Government of Ukraine has decided to look further afield for a suitable site to launch its nearly completed...
by David Todd | Aug 30, 2016 | commercial launch services, Launches, Satellites
Satellite operators (and their insurers) are usually loath to put “all their eggs in one basket” by having a rocket carry more than one major satellite on a launch. So it is a measure of the confidence that satellite operator, Intelsat, has in the...
by David Todd | Aug 16, 2016 | commercial launch services, Launches, Satellites, SpaceX
At 0526 GMT on 14 August 2016, a Falcon 9V1.2R rocket successfully placed the Japanese communications satellite JCSAT-16 into a 36,183 x 151 km Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) at 20.9 degrees inclination relative to the equator (orbit via Jonathan McDowell from...
