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The best of SatNews—essential reads, standout reporting, and hand-picked stories worth your time.
Rocket Lab Engaging Two Photon Spacecraft For A Science Mission To Mars For NASA’s ESCAPADE Quest
Rocket Lab will initiate final mission design and manufacture to supply two, interplanetary, Photon spacecraft for a science mission to Mars, delivering Decadal-class science at a fraction of the cost of typical planetary missions. Artistic rendition of two Photon spacecraft ...
Arianespace Propels 34 OneWeb Constellation Satellites To Orbit
Performed by Arianespace on Sunday, August 22, 2021, at precisely 3:13 a.m. local time at Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome (10:13 p.m. UTC on August 21), Soyuz Flight ST34 lifted-off, with 34 OneWeb satellites onboard. After the successful deployment if the smallsats, ...
Vector Acquisition Corp.’s Rocket Lab Merger Is Approved By The Firm’s Shareholders
Vector Acquisition Corporation (Nasdaq: VACQ) (“Vector”), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) backed by leading technology investor Vector Capital, has announced that Vector’s shareholders voted to approve the company's proposed merger with Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (“Rocket Lab” ...
Blue Origin’s Next New Shepard Flight Set With 18 Commercial Payloads + NASA Lunar Landing Tech Demo
Blue Origin's New Shepard’s next mission will fly a NASA lunar landing technology demonstration a second time on the exterior of the booster, 18 commercial payloads inside the crew capsule, 11 of which are NASA-supported, and an art installation on the exterior of the capsule. Liftoff is currently targeted ...
Spaceflight Now Managing 3 Consecutive Rocket Lab Launches For BlackSky
Spaceflight is currently managing three consecutive dedicated Rocket Lab launches for its customer BlackSky, a leading technology platform providing real-time geospatial intelligence and global monitoring. The back-to-back-to-back launches will each carry two BlackSky smallsats to LEO. Spaceflight’s RL-8, coined “Love ...
AuroraSat-1 From Aurora Propulsion Technologies To Be Launched By Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab will launch a satellite to test space junk removal technologies for Aurora Propulsion Technologies, a Finnish company dedicated to the sustainable use of space. Lifting-off from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula as part of a ...
Arianespace’s 19th Vega Mission Successfully Launches Pléiades Neo 4 + 3 Smallsats
On Monday, August 16, 2021, at 10:47 p.m. local time (01:47 am (UTC) on Thursday, August 17), a Vega launch vehicle operated by Arianespace lifted off successfully from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana (South America). This mission marked Arianespace’s 7th ...
Slingshot Aerospace Produces The World’s First Collision Avoidance Collaboration & Comms Space Platform
Slingshot Aerospace, Inc. has launched Slingshot Beacon which, according to the company, is the industry’s first collision avoidance collaboration and communications platform for space — Slingshot Beacon will be piloted by OneWeb, Spire Global Inc., Orbit Fab and others. The ...
Airbus Wishes To Deliver NexGen MILSATCOM For Australia
Airbus has announced that Sydney, Australia-based, ground-control infrastructure specialist UGL will become the latest local partner to join the Airbus teaming arrangement in its bid to deliver next-generation military satellite communications (MILSATCOM) capability to Australia under the JP9102 program. The ...
Space & Missile Systems Center’s Re-Designation Ceremony TO USSF’s Space Systems Command
The SMC to SSC re-designation ceremony. The Space and Missile Systems Center has now been re-designated as Space Systems Command headquarters, officially establishing the newest field command of the U.S. Space Force, during a ceremony on August 13, at 10:00 ...
An Equity Placement Of Million$$$ For OneWeb From Hanwha
Hanwha, the South Korean Fortune 500 global technology and manufacturing company, has announced a $300 million equity investment by Hanwha Systems (“Hanwha”) in OneWeb — Hanwha brings further defence capabilities and the latest antenna technologies to OneWeb, alongside relationships to ...
Rocket Lab Contracts To Launch BlackSky Global Monitoring Smallsats + Photon Spacecraft For Varda Space’s In-Space Manufacturing Factories
Rocket Lab has revealed that their next mission is part of a rapid launch schedule of three dedicated Electron missions for global monitoring provider BlackSky. Scheduled to lift-off from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula in late August, ...
Vega Mission’s Airbus’ Pleiades Neo 4 EO Satellite To Launch With Four Auxiliary Spacecraft
Arianespace's upcoming Vega launch, scheduled for August 16, 2021, will orbit Pleiades Neo 4, the second, very high-resolution satellite that is part of the new Airbus Defence and Space's Earth Observation (EO) constellation. Vega Flight 19 (VV19) will also deploy ...
The Lockheed Martin LINUSS™ Smallsats Are Ready For Launch
Lockheed Martin’s (NYSE: LMT) In-space Upgrade Satellite System (LINUSS) completed environmental testing and is ready for launch later this year, demonstrating how small cubesats can regularly upgrade satellite constellations to add timely new capabilities and extend spacecraft design lives. LINUSS ...
Planet Enters Into A Multi-Year, Multi-Launch Agreement With SpaceX
Screen capture of augmented reality display of Planet Dove smallsat, courtesy of World Economic Forum. Planet has announced a multi-year, multi-launch agreement solidifying SpaceX as the firm's go-to-launch provider through the end of 2025. The first planned launch under this ...
Astra Sets Their First USSF Smallsat Launch From The Pacific Spaceport Complex In Kodiak, Alaska
Astra Space, Inc. (“Astra”) (Nasdaq: ASTR) has announced a launch window that starts on August 27, 2021, for the company's first commercial orbital launch with the United States Space Force. Following this launch, Astra is under contract to perform a ...
A First For Rocket Lab As Their Spacecraft Will Be Enroute To The Moon Via NASA’s CAPSTONE Smallsat Mission Launch
Rocket Lab will launch the CAPSTONE mission to the Moon from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand from Q4 2021 — this will be Rocket Lab’s first launch to the Moon. CAPSTONE (the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and ...
CDR For Next-Gen OPIR GEO Mission Payload Successfully Completed By Northrop Grumman + Ball Aerospace
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) and Ball Aerospace have successfully completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) for the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR) Geosynchronous (GEO) mission payload. The completion of the Next-Gen OPIR subsystems and payload CDR meets aggressive ...
UPDATE 4: Still A ‘No Go’ For ULA’s Launch Of The Boeing Starliner
United Launch Alliance will not be proceeding with a launch of the Boeing Starliner today as had been previously indicated. The launch team has cycled the Service Module propulsion system valves and is not going to rush in gathering the ...
Lt. General John F. Thompson Retires From U.S.A.F. Active Service At The Space & Missile Systems Center, L.A.F.B.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. John F. Thompson, Space and Missile Systems Center commander and Department of the Air Force Program Executive Officer for Space, speaks during his retirement ceremony at Los Angeles Air Force Base, California on July 27, ...
