Satellite Launch Business

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and The Strategist, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles. This is “Northern launch site could transform Australia’s role in space” by Malcolm Davis, originally published on 20 December 2019. The Australian continent is in an excellent position when it comes to …

SpaceWatch.Global asked its staff and contributors to review 2019 and provide an outlook into 2020. These personal reviews are being published during the holiday season. This is Blaine Curcio of Orbital Gateway Consulting. By Blaine Curcio Reflections on 2019—A Turning Point In the Space Industry? Every year seems to be …

After a long field-testing campaign the GMV -developed avionics system for PLD Spaces’ MIURA 1 launch vehicle has successfully passed its Qualification Acceptance Review (QAR), clearing it for fitting in this suborbital launch vehicle, one of the essential prelaunch conditions. Since 2017 GMV has been working on the design, development …

Rocket Lab, the global leader in dedicated small satellite launch, has begun construction on a new launch pad located at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The new pad will be the company’s third launch pad for the Electron launch vehicle, joining the existing pad at Launch Complex 1 in …

Ethiopia’s first Earth observation satellite, the Ethiopian Remote Sensing Satellite (ETRSS-1), was successfully launched on board a Chinese Long March 4B satellite launched vehicle from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre on 20 December 2019. The launch was delayed by several days due to inclement weather in the Taiyuan SLC area. …

Japanese satellite and space industry giant Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has announced that an MHI H-IIA satellite launch vehicle will send Japan’s eighth Intelligence Gathering System (IGS) reconnaissance satellite into orbit from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwest Japan, on 27 January 2020. The IGS satellite will carry …

Arianespace’s Soyuz accomplished a flawless launch from the Guiana Space Centre (GSC), Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, on 18 December 2019 orbiting COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation for the Italian space agency ASI and the Italian Ministry of Defence, CHEOPS for the European Space Agency (ESA), ANGELS and EyeSat for French space agency …

Rocket Lab, the global leader in small satellite launch, officially opened Launch Complex 2, the company’s first U.S. launch site, on 12 December 2019 and confirmed the inaugural mission from the site will be a dedicated flight for the U.S. Air Force. Located at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops …

Taiwan Innovative Space Inc. (TiSPACE) has become the latest company to enter the increasingly crowded, and technically challenging, small satellite launch market.  TiSPACE was established in 2016 by Chen Yen-sen, a 21-year NASA veteran, who was employed by Taiwan’s semi-official National Space Organisation (NSPO) for over a decade. Chen joined …

The Airbus-built CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite (CHEOPS) has been successfully launched on the morning of 18 December 2019 on a Soyuz rocket from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. CHEOPS is the first exoplanetary mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). It is also the first satellite built by Airbus in …