Tag: Spaceflight
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Spaceflight and Rocket Lab will put a Japanese shooting-star satellite into orbit
An artist’s conception shows the ALE-2 shooting-star satellite in orbit. (ALE / Spaceflight Illustration) Seattle-based Spaceflight says it’s handling the pre-launch logistics for a Japanese satellite that’s designed to spray artificial shooting stars into the sky. Tokyo-based ALE’s spacecraft is just one of seven satellites due to be sent into orbit from New Zealand as…
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Rocket Lab launches four satellites for BlackSky, UnseenLabs and U.S. Air Force
Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket lifts off from its launch pad in New Zealand. (Rocket Lab via YouTube) Rocket Lab sent a foursome of satellites into orbit today for a threesome of customers, including the Seattle-based BlackSky Earth-watching venture. BlackSky’s sibling subsidiary, Spaceflight, handled the prelaunch logistics for the Global-4 satellite and for a pair of…
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Spaceflight gets first crack at India’s new SSLV rocket – and puts up a ‘sold out’ sign
India’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle will be smaller than its workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, shown here on its launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Center. (ISRO Photo) Seattle-based Spaceflight says it’s purchased the first commercial launch of India’s next-generation Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, or SSLV, and has already committed all of the available…
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Good news, bad news for Spaceflight: Satellite rideshare market is heating up
An artist’s conception shows a future SpaceX rocket deploying a satellite carrier in orbit. (SpaceX Illustration) Seattle-based Spaceflight has made a name for itself by putting together bunches of small satellites for launch on someone else’s rockets, but now the owners of some of those rockets are aiming to take the business for themselves. The…
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Rocket Lab launches seven small satellites from New Zealand for Seattle’s Spaceflight
Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle rises from the company’s launch pad on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. (Rocket Lab via YouTube) Rocket Lab executed a picture-perfect first launch for Seattle’s Spaceflight Inc., putting BlackSky’s Global-3 Earth-observing satellite and six other small spacecraft into orbit from its New Zealand launch pad. The Los Angeles-based launch company nicknamed…
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Spaceflight strikes a deal to put rideshare satellites on Relativity Space’s rocket
An artist’s conception shows Relativity Space’s Terran 1 rocket lifting off from Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. (Relativity Space Illustration) Seattle-based Spaceflight has signed a launch services agreement to put payloads on Relativity Space’s Terran 1 rocket. Relativity, a startup that got its start in Seattle but is now headquartered in…
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Spaceflight notes expanding and evolving offerings as it prepares for first GTO rideshare mission
Hot on the heels of its first dedicated mission via the Falcon 9 launch of the SSO-A mission late last year, Spaceflight is preparing for its first rideshare mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). The Falcon 9 launch of primary payload Nusantara Satu (PSN VI) – now set to launch from SLC-40 No Earlier Than…
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Seattle rideshare space company wins a shout-out for disrupting launch industry
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket sends 64 satellites into space from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base in December 2018 to kick off Spaceflight’s SSO-A satellite rideshare mission. (SpaceX Photo) Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries has taken the spotlight in a research note from Morgan Stanley for disrupting the process of putting satellites in space — in a good way.…
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Israeli lunar lander passes tests in preparation for SpaceX launch to the moon
SpaceIL’s Beresheet lunar lander is suspended at a payload processing facility in Florida. (SpaceIL Photo via Twitter) The managers of Israel’s first mission to the moon say their lunar lander has passed a crucial set of tests in preparation for February’s launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with an assist from a Seattle space…
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FCC levies $900,000 fine against Swarm Technologies for unlawful satellite launch
As initially designed, Swarm Technologies’ controversial SpaceBEE satellites were each roughly the size of a sandwich. (Swarm Technologies Illustration via FCC) The Federal Communications Commission says Swarm Technologies must pay a $900,000 fine and be subject to increased scrutiny for having a tiny set of satellites launched without authorization. The penalties were laid out in…