Tag Archives: SpaceX

Deere & Company has announced an agreement with SpaceX to provide cutting-edge satellite communications service to farmers. Utilizing the industry-leading Starlink network, this solution will allow farmers facing rural connectivity challenges to fully leverage precision agriculture technologies. This partnership will subsequently enable John Deere customers to be more productive, profitable, and sustainable in their operations as they continue to provide food, fuel, and fiber for their communities and a growing global population.

Redwire Corporation has announced that two 5-kW Roll-Out Solar Arrays (ROSA) have successfully deployed and are operating nominally in geosynchronous orbit on the Maxar Space Systems-built Ovzon 3 communications satellite. The satellite successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 on Wednesday, January 3, 2024. Ovzon 3 represents the first-ever integration of Redwire’s ROSA technology with a commercial satellite following years of successful operations on the International Space Station (ISS) and on NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission.

Sidus Space, a multi-faceted Space and Data-as-a-Service company, has announced that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has granted it a Tier 1 remote sensing license to include Panchromatic (PAN) and Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) imaging capabilities. This approval includes Sidus’ upcoming LizzieSat scheduled for launch in March 2024, as well as subsequent LizzieSat satellites.

NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a Govt. of India company under the Department of Space and the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has announced a launch partnership with SpaceX and the Falcon Heavy rocket. As a result, SpaceX will launch NSIL's 2nd Demand-driven communication satellite mission involving GSAT-20 [renamed as GSAT-N2], a high throughput Ka-band Satellite, during the 2nd quarter of 2024. 

Space Systems Command (SSC) and SpaceX have successfully launched the U.S. Space Force (USSF)-52 mission using a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex (LC)-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Falcon Heavy carried the seventh mission of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, an experimental test program to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the USSF.

OHB System AG has successfully launched two reflector satellites of the SARah reconnaissance system from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launchpad SLC-4E at 14:11 CET and deployed its two passengers in space on schedule after a flight time of 25 minutes. Shortly afterwards, the operators received signals from the two satellites, kicking off the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP). 

SpaceWatch.Global CEO and Publisher Torsten Kriening interviewed Ali Al Kuwari, Es’hailSat’s President and CEO, about the plans and future of the Qatari satellite company.

Axiom Space announced it plans to launch its third mission, Ax-3, on the 9th of January 2024.  Four commercial astronauts will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft.

Lunasonde has announced the launch timeline for its third satellite to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The San Xavier satellite will fly on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Transporter-11 in the summer of 2024 via launch provider Exolaunch. It is the company’s first on-orbit test of its proprietary very low-frequency radar technological stack capable of detecting subsurface mineral deposits up to two kilometers underground.

In the first half of 2023 I conducted a study on the future of the global space economy for the future studies institute 2b AHEAD. Being based on in-depth expert interviews from both inside and outside the space sector, the study contains some wild predictions for the upcoming two decades: private space stations, modular, repairable satellites, a permanent Moon base, and nuclear propulsion. But many of these predictions stand on the assumption that SpaceX’s Starship will, as promised, dramatically ease accessibility to space. What if Starship fails? In this article, I would like to provide an overview of the consequences of Starship’s failure for future human activities in space.