Tag: Spaceflight
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Planetary Resources’ prototype asteroid prospector set for January liftoff in India
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle lifts off on a February space mission. (ISRO Photo) Redmond, Wash.-based Planetary Resources’ technology demonstrator satellite for asteroid prospecting is due for launch in early January, along with more than two dozen other satellites, aboard India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The latest word on the schedule for the PSLV-C40 mission…
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Spaceflight Industries issues $150 million investment offer amid high-flying plans
An artist’s conception shows Black Sky’s imaging satellites in orbit. (Black Sky Illustration) Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries is seeking as much as $150 million in new investment as it gets ready for a key rocket launch and a dramatic expansion of its satellite presence. The outlines of the offering are described in documents filed today with…
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Spaceflight wins $5.5 million NASA contract for nanosatellite launch services
Spaceflight’s SHERPA carrier is capable of deploying scores of satellites. (Spaceflight Illustration) Seattle-based Spaceflight says it’s been awarded its first contract for launch and integration services from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The three-year deal is potentially worth $5.48 million. The NASA contract calls for Spaceflight, a business unit of Spaceflight Industries, to provide launch…
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Spaceflight’s BlackSky wins $16.4M Air Force contract for geospatial data platform
BlackSky’s online imaging platform can link a satellite view of the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo to real-time social media streams about the area to provide greater context. (Spaceflight Industries Graphic) BlackSky, a division of Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries, has been awarded a two-year, $16.4 million cost-plus prime contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory to…
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Spaceflight buys Rocket Lab Electron launch for a small satellite sampler
Seattle-based Spaceflight says it’s struck a deal to buy the full capacity of a single Electron rocket launch from L.A.-based Rocket Lab, so it can send other ventures’ small satellites into orbit at cut-rate prices. The dedicated-rideshare mission follows the model that Spaceflight set with SpaceX for a Falcon 9 launch, now expected to go up…
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Elysium Space and Seattle’s Spaceflight plan to spread loved ones’ ashes in orbit
Elysium Space says its memorial payload will eventually burn up in the atmosphere. (Elysium Space Photo) Elysium Space has struck a deal to give people an out-of-this-world memorial by sending their cremated remains into orbit. The startup, headquartered in San Francisco, announced today that its Elysium Star II memorial spacecraft is due to be launched from Vandenberg Air…
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Spaceflight Industries unveils BlackSky Spectra for multispectral satellite imaging
An image from BlackSky Spectra displays visible-light imagery, synthetic aperture radar readings and infrared data over Panama City and the Miraflores Locks. The imagery comes from Airbus Pléiades, Airbus TerraSAR-X and USGS Landsat. (Spaceflight Industries Photo) Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries lifted the curtain on another satellite imaging service today: BlackSky Spectra, a Web-based platform that knits…
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Citing schedule slips, Spaceflight rebooks 89 satellites on SpaceX’s launch list
Spaceflight’s SHERPA carrier is designed to deploy scores of satellites. (Spaceflight Illustration) For more than a year, Seattle-based Spaceflight has been waiting to launch an array of 89 miniaturized satellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and deploy them in orbit from its innovative SHERPA carrier. Now the launch logistics company isn’t waiting any longer. All…
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104-satellite launch marks success for India (and Seattle’s Spaceflight Industries)
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on the coast of the Bay of Bengal, sending 104 satellites spaceward. (ISRO Photo) A record-setting flock of 104 satellites was successfully deployed into orbit overnight after the launch of an Indian rocket. Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries played a part in getting nine…
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Google Lunar X Prize clears five teams for moon race and pays out $1 million
An artist’s conception shows SpaceIL’s lander on the moon. (SpaceIL Illustration) The organizers of the Google Lunar X Prize competition confirmed that five teams have been cleared to go after the $20 million grand prize, and doled out a total of $1 million to all 16 teams that entered. These five teams previously reported that…