Satellite News

Capella Space, an aerospace and information services company providing on-demand Earth observation data via advanced space radar, announces US$19 million Series B funding led by Spark Capital and DCVC (Data Collective) and joined by Mark VC and Harmony Partners among other investors.

According to Euroconsult’s latest report, Prospects for Space Exploration, global government investment in space exploration totalled US$14.6 billion in 2017, a 6% increase compared to 2016. Fifteen leading space programmes world-wide are estimated to contribute to this global investment with the U.S. accounting for 74% of the total.

According to a new market intelligence report by BIS Research, titled “Global High-throughput Satellite Market, Analysis & Forecast, 2018 – 2023,” the high-throughput satellite (HTS) market was estimated as US$3,466 million in 2017 and is expected to reach US$7.31 billion by 2023.

Arianespace’s on-target mission with Horizons 3e and Azerspace-2/Intelsat 38 marked the milestone 100th flight of a heavy-lift Ariane 5.

Vector announced that the company received a U.S. patent for its enhanced liquid oxygen-propylene rocket engine. Vector is the first and only launch provider to utilise propylene fuel and liquid oxygen (LOX) in an operational launch system.

ThinKom Solutions, Inc. has announced the successful completion of the first ground test of its ThinAir Ka2517 Ka-band phased-array satellite antenna with the SES’ O3b constellation of medium-Earth orbit (MEO) satellites.

Rocket: Ariane 5 ECA; Payload: Horizons 3e, Azerspace-2/Intelsat 38 [IS 38]; Date: 25 September 2018, 2239 UTC; Launch site: Kourou, French Guiana. Horizons 3e separated from the upper stage 28 minutes after lift-off, followed by Azerspace-2/IS 38 about 14 minutes later.

NASA has awarded a contract extension to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to continue operations and science support for the agency’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.