Satellite News

NSPO in Taiwan have shipped six FORMOSAT-7 satellites to the U.S. in preparation for their launch on Falcon Heavy later this year, according to SSTL, which provided the satellites’ buses.

Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI) and U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) have signed an agreement for space situational awareness (SSA) services and data. The SSA Sharing agreement enables AGI, including its Commercial Space Operations Center (ComSpOC), and USSTRATCOM to exchange SSA information and services in a streamlined process.

The redeployment of the Sea Launch space launch venture from the U.S. State of California to Russia’s Far East may be discussed soon, a Russian space industry source was quoted as saying by Sputnik news agency.

Virgin Orbit announced that the Pacific island of Guam will become an additional launch site for the company’s LauncherOne service.

Russia’s State Space Corporation Roskosmos and S7 Group are planning to develop the Soyuz-5 Light reusable launch vehicle based on the Soyuz-5 rocket, Roskosmos General Director Dmitry Rogozin was quoted as saying.

Rocket: Falcon Heavy; Payload: Arabsat 6A; Date: 11 April 2019, 2235 UTC; Launch site: Kennedy Space Center, USA. The satellite was deployed approximately 34 minutes after lift-off.

NASA has selected SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, to provide launch services for the agency’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, the first-ever mission to demonstrate the capability to deflect an asteroid by colliding a spacecraft with it at high speed – a technique known as a kinetic impactor.

EXOLAUNCH, a Germany-based launch services provider and cluster integrator for small satellites, and Virgin Orbit announced the signing of an MOU for transporting EXOLAUNCH customers’ payloads on dedicated and rideshare missions with Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne as early as 2020.