Tag Archives: SpaceX

The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) member states, during a Council meeting which took place on 26-27 June 2024, decided to award a launch service contract to SpaceX for the launch of the Meteosat Third Generation-Sounder 1 (MTG-S1) satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket in 2025. The Satellite was initially scheduled to launch on the new Ariane 6's third flight around early 2025.

Sateliot has announced successfully integrating its satellite communication stack with Leaf Space's Ground Segment as a Service (GSaaS) Network. This milestone is crucial for the upcoming Transporter-11 mission by SpaceX, during which Sateliot will launch four new 6U satellites to further global 5G IoT connectivity. Leaf Space's GSaaS ensures that Sateliot's constellation can scale efficiently, providing redundancy and robust support for continuous operations

Northrop Grumman Corporation has delivered its two-satellite constellation to the launch site for Space Norway's Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM). These satellites will bring commercial broadband and protected military satellite communications to the hard-to-reach northern polar region. ASBM is a joint effort between Space Norway, the Norwegian Armed Forces, the U.S. Space Force, Viasat and Northrop Grumman.

Look Up Space has announced a major milestone in space history with the passing of 10,000 active satellites in orbit this month. On June 19, 2024, Look Up Space counted 10,019 active satellites, two-thirds of which (6,646) belong to Starlink, the constellation of SpaceX. The majority (9,254) of these satellites are in low-Earth orbits, mainly between 400 and 1,200 kilometers from the Earth

Vyoma has selected Aerospacelab for a contract for a microsatellite, flying Vyoma’s second Space Situational Awareness (SSA) optical payload, which will tentatively launch towards the end of 2025. The mission advances Vyoma’s 12-satellite Flamingo constellation which the Company designed for the acquisition and provision of low-latency, high-fidelity space-based SSA data.

The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) has awarded National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 contracts to Blue Origin, SpaceX, and ULA. The base Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) award includes Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Task Orders to each awardee to conduct an initial capabilities assessment and provide explanations of how they will approach tailored mission assurance.

Planets has announced that its first hyperspectral satellite, Tanager-1 is ready for launch. The spacecraft arrived at Vandenberg Space Force Base on June 3rd in preparation for liftoff as early as July on board the Transporter-11 Rideshare mission with SpaceX. Tanager-1 will subsequently be the first of a next-generation hyperspectral fleet which will expand Planet’s imaging capabilities in the spectral domain to complement the existing imaging capabilities in the temporal and spatial domains offered by the PlanetScope, SkySat, and Pelican missions.

SpaceX has successfully launched its Starship rocket on its fourth flight test, clearing all previous milestones with both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship second stage making a soft splashdown. The booster’s flight ended with a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico seven minutes and 24 seconds into the flight. Meanwhile, Starship ignited its three-center Raptor engines to execute the first flip maneuver and landing burn for the first time, before soft splashing in the Indian Ocean one hour and six minutes after launch.

SpaceX has announced that it is now targeting 6 June 2024 for Starship's fourth flight test pending regulatory approvals. The flight test will fly a similar trajectory as the previous flight test, with Starship aiming to splashdown in the Indian Ocean. This flight path will not require a deorbit burn for reentry, to maximize public safety while still providing SpaceX the opportunity to meet its primary objective of a controlled Starship reentry.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched the EarthCARE satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, with the confirmation signal about the satellite's orbital status coming from the Hartebeesthoek ground station in South Africa. The mission is a joint venture between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and was designed and built by a consortium of more than 75 companies under Airbus as the prime contractor.