Tag Archives: Commercial Space

Virgin Galactic has reached the "Weight on Wheels" milestone in the build of its second commercial spaceship. In this milestone, all major structural elements of the vehicle were assembled, and the vehicle deployed its main landing gear and carried its own weight for the first time.

HISPASAT, the Spanish satellite telecommunications operator, has awarded to Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), the construction of the Amazonas Nexus satellite, which will replace and expand the capacities of Amazonas 2 satellite, in orbit at 61º West.

The UAE Space Agency announced its collaboration with the Abu Dhabi-based global innovation hub, Krypto Labs, to launch the UAE NewSpace Innovation Programme, which aims to maximise the growth of space technology start-ups with New Space, the rising private spaceflight industry.

The Satcoms Innovation Group (SIG) has appointed Helen Weedon as Managing Director. The appointment marks significant restructuring of the innovation forum. Helen succeeds Martin Coleman who will commence as a member of the group’s advisory board.

Globalstar Europe Satellite Services Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Globalstar Inc. and the leader in satellite messaging and emergency notification technologies, announced on 9 January 2020 that researchers from the NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, The University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Utrecht University are using drifter buoys fitted with SPOT Trace satellite trackers to understand the dramatic increase of Sargassum seaweed across the North Atlantic.

The Nigerian Communicatons Commission (NCC) has released a list of 55 authorised space stations and the licensees allowed to provide satellite communications services across Nigerian sovereign territory, with the UK’s OneWeb being the only megaconstellation provider listed.

Payload integration is underway for Arianespace’s first mission of 2020 – designated Flight VA251 – which will orbit satellites at the service of two long-time partners using an Ariane 5 launch vehicle.

Kleos Space has announced that its Kleos Scouting Mission will be launched on board an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C49 mission from Chennai, India, in early 2020.

Following the retirement of David Pollack on 1 January 2020, Israel’s Spacecom has announced the appointment of Itzhak Shnaiberg as the company’s interim chief executive officer.

AzerCosmos, the Azerbaijani satellite operator, reported revenues of U.S.$40.6 million for the period of January to November 2019, a 69 percent increase over the same period in 2018, when the company generated revenues of just U.S.$25.6 million.