Satellite Launch Business

A new report has found New Zealand’s space sector contributed $1.69 billion to the economy in the last financial year and employs 12,000 people, Minister for Economic Development Phil Twyford announced on 14 November 2019. The report by Deloitte was commissioned by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and …

RUAG Space, a leading supplier to the space industry, has successfully developed and tested a new low shock jettison system for payload fairings. This enables a quieter and smoother journey to space for satellites or other payload. The required payload fairings for the European launchers Ariane and VEGA have been …

On Monday, 11 November 2019 at 9:56 a.m. EST, 14:56 UTC, SpaceX launched 60 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Falcon 9’s first stage launched the Iridium-7 communications satellite; the SAOCOM-1A Earth observation satellite for Argentina; and the Nusantara Satu communications …

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) has shipped a 16kg Target satellite for Astroscale’s End-of-Life Services by Astroscale demonstration (ELSA-d) mission to Tokyo, where it will be bolted to the Chaser satellite for environmental testing ahead of launch in 2020. The ELSA-d mission is designed to simulate capture of orbital debris …

The UK Space Agency will award £7.35 million to Virgin Orbit UK Limited, the UK branch of U.S. launch operator Virgin Orbit, to enable horizontal launch of small satellites at Cornwall Airport Newquay, it was confirmed on 5 November 2019. The funding will help to develop advanced ground support equipment, …

Rocket Lab, the global leader in dedicated small satellite launch, has announced that its next mission will launch multiple microsatellites in a rideshare mission representing five different countries. The launch window for Rocket Lab’s tenth flight, named ‘Running Out Of Fingers,’ will open 25 November 2019 NZDT and take place …

David Pollack, the long-serving Chief Executive Officer of Israeli satellite communications company Spacecom, is to step down after 24 years with the company. Pollack, a former Israel Aerospace Induistries (IAI) executive, helped found Spacecom in the 1990’s and was instrumental in raising the funds necessary to build and launch the …

The Chinese government has started an initiative to promote greater use of its BeiDou global navigation satellite system (GNSS) in Central Asian countries for applications such as precision farming, transportation, and disaster relief and management. Agreements between China and Central Asian countries were signed at the China-Central Asia Cooperation Forum …

Kazakhstan has proposed a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation with Turkey in order to collaborate on space launch out of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, according to an official from the Aerospace Committee of the Kazakh Ministry of Defence and Aerospace Industry. “Kazakhstan proposed that Turkish spaceships use launching capacities, as well …

Sudan’s first satellite, the Sudan Remote Sensing Satellite (SRSS)-1, was successfully launched in the morning on 3 November 2019 by a Chinese Long March 4B satellite launch vehicle from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in China’s northern Shanxi Province, according to reporting in Space in Africa. The Long March 4B …