Satellite News

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane has exploded and crashed during a test flight, killing one crew member and seriously injuring another.

Orbital said that based on initial sweeps conducted by its safety team, it appears likely that substantial hardware evidence will be available to aid in determining root cause of the recent Antares launch failure. Preliminary telemetry analysis indicates the failure initiated in the rocket’s first stage.

Three of the four satellites for O3b Networks’ next flight have been delivered to French Guiana, where they will be readied for an Arianespace Soyuz launch planned for 18 December.

Arabsat will discuss its plans to manufacture and launch four new satellites on Arabsat orbital positions and Hellas-Sat orbital positions, when it convenes the 147th Board of Directors’ meetings in Dubai between 5 and 6 November.

SES S.A. reported financial results for the first nine months of 2014.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. reported financial results for the third quarter ending 30 September 2014.

DigitalGlobe, Inc. reported financial results for the quarter ending 30 September 2014.

The Wallops Incident Response Team has completed an initial assessment of Wallops Island, Virginia, following the catastrophic failure of Orbital Science Corp.’s Antares rocket shortly after lift-off on 28 October from Pad 0A of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.