Satellite Launch Business

Orbex has announced that it is partnering with UK-based Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) to carry an experimental payload on its maiden flight from Scotland in 2021.

Four new O3b Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites have arrived safely at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, in preparation for launch by a Soyuz rocket from Arianespace in late March 2019, SES has announced.

The head of the French national space agency, the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), Jean-Yves Le Gall, spoke at the French-Russian seminar organized by GIFAS, the French aerospace industries association, at the Espace Hamelin in Paris on 30 January 2019.

Arianespace has successfully orbited two telecommunications satellites: the Saudi Geostationary Satellite 1/Hellas Sat 4 condosat for operators King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and Hellas Sat; and GSAT-31 for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Reaching a desired orbit in space is set to become easier and more cost-effective, as space transportation start-up Momentus is soon to prove with its Vigoride service. German launch service provider, Exolaunch has signed a contract worth over U.S.$6 million with the Momentus to move its CubeSats and Microsatellites into multiple, bespoke orbits.

One could be correct in saying that China has a history of firing rockets into the sky. The earliest evidence of fireworks dates back to the ninth century Tang Dynasty, and over the last thousand-plus years, China has continued to put on some of the world’s most brilliant fireworks spectacles.

Iran’s ICT Minister, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, and his Iraqi counterpart have called for broadening joint cooperation in space and information technology (IT) after a meeting on 22 January 2019.

The end of 2014 saw an important development for the Chinese launch sector when the government allowed private capital investment into the Chinese launch and small satellite sectors. Since then, there has been rapid development in small satellite launch vehicles with around 10 new companies emerging as a result. A

China has agreed to grant U.S.$72 million for the EgyptSat-2 Earth observation satellite programme under a contract signed on 21 January 2019.

A military Earth observation satellite made by several laboratories within India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and called MicroSat-R was launched on board an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on 24 January 2019 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India.