by David Todd | Jan 17, 2014 | commercial launch services, Russia, Satellites
While SpaceX has smashed its way into the commercial launch market, International Launch Services (ILS) made its point that it is not done yet as it announced two new launch assignments. On 14 January 2014, ILS announced that Intelsat 31 (DLA-2) would be launched by...
by David Todd | Jan 17, 2014 | commercial launch services, Satellites
Having had a second successful commercial Falcon 9 v1.1 launch to a supersynchronous GEO transfer orbit with the successful injection of Thaicom 6 (after previously successfully launching SES 8), Space Exploration Technologies (Space X) was pleased to announce that it...
by David Todd | Jan 9, 2014 | commercial launch services, Satellites
After being delayed by weather at the launch site, and then by weather in space (a solar flare caused concerns that the launch vehicle’s avionics might be damaged) the latest Antares launch (this time using the 120 version) finally flew on 1807 GMT on 7 January...
by David Todd | Jan 9, 2014 | commercial launch services, ESA, International Space Station, Personal spaceflight, Space Shuttle, space station
While the International Space Station was originally set to retire in 2015, a retirement which was then deferred to 2020, NASA has just got permission from the Obama Administration to agree with its other national/pan-national users including Roscosmos, ESA, JAXA and...
by David Todd | Jan 7, 2014 | commercial launch services, Satellites, Seradata News, SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) was celebrating another launch success as its Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket successfully launched the Thaicom 6 communications satellite into a 90,000 x 295km, inclined at 22.5 degrees, supersynchronous transfer orbit. The launch took...
by David Todd | Jan 6, 2014 | commercial launch services, History, Satellites
According to the Seradata SpaceTrak database, there were 82 orbital launch attempts made in 2013. Of these, three were failures to orbit while two were classed as failures due to incorrect orbit placements. Notable first flights for new or radically modified launch...
