Satellite News

Firefly Black, LLC announced its selection by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s Small Launch and Targets Division as a launch service provider for the Orbital Services Program-4 Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract.

The European Space Agency said that positive steps towards solving the problems discovered with the ExoMars mission parachutes have been taken in the last month to keep on track for the July-August 2020 launch window.

Dymon announced the signing of a joint agreement with Astrobotic to send the first Japanese lunar rover onboard the Peregrine lunar lander to the Moon in 2021.

LeoLabs, Inc. announced it had launched its Kiwi Space Radar (KSR). As the first commercial radar to track objects in LEO as small as 2 centimeters, the KSR sets a new standard for tracking the full range of threats to satellites from orbital debris, the company said.

The Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) satellites built by Northrop Grumman Corporation for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) have far surpassed their four-year on-orbit design life, completing a tenth year of space operations.

Thales Alenia Space announced the arrival of the first shipping container designed for the new family of communications satellites based on the Spacebus NEO platform.

Rocket: Pegasus XL; Payload: Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON); Date: 11 October 2019, 0031 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The satellite was placed into a 597 km x 602 km x 27.0 degrees orbit.

Aerojet Rocketdyne has entered into a Space Act Agreement with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center to design and manufacture a lightweight rocket engine thrust chamber assembly using innovative additive manufacturing processes and materials.