Earth Observation – Page 21

Chinese company inks deal to launch 90 commercial smallsats

January 30, 2019 Stephen Clark

Satellogic’s recent agreement with a Chinese company to launch 90 commercial Earth observation satellites on five or six dedicated Long March rocket flights marks one of China’s biggest wins in the global launch market.

Q&A with Emiliano Kargieman, founder and CEO of Satellogic (members only)

January 29, 2019 Stephen Clark

Emiliano Kargieman leads Satellogic, an Argentinian company founded in 2010 to develop a fleet of small satellites designed to cover the globe with high-resolution mapping images at least once every week, supplying data to customers in the oil and gas, agricultural and forestry, and government sectors.

Photos: India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle flies in new configuration

January 28, 2019 Stephen Clark

An Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle lifted off Jan. 24 in a new, intermediate configuration with two strap-on solid rocket boosters, providing a lift capability between the PSLV’s previous variants with zero or six side-mounted rocket motors.

India debuts new version of workhorse PSLV

January 24, 2019 Stephen Clark

A new variant of India’s workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle with two strap-on solid rocket boosters and an upper stage converted into an experiment-carrying platform debuted Thursday with a launch into polar orbit.

China’s Long March 11 rocket lofts Earth-imaging and tech demo satellites

January 22, 2019 Stephen Clark

China’s second space launch of the year released four satellites into orbits more than 300 miles in altitude, adding two spacecraft to the Chinese-owned Jilin 1 commercial Earth-imaging constellation and deploying two smallsats on tech demo missions.

Iran admits failure in satellite launch attempt

January 16, 2019 Stephen Clark

An Iranian Simorgh rocket launch carrying an Earth observation spacecraft faltered before reaching orbit Tuesday after analysts used imagery from commercial U.S. satellites in recent weeks to track preparations for the mission.

DigitalGlobe’s WorldView 4 Earth-imaging satellite fails

January 7, 2019 Stephen Clark

DigitalGlobe’s WorldView 4 commercial Earth observation satellite, which launched in 2016 for a planned 10-to-12-year mission, has suffered a failure in its control moment gyros and is no longer able to acquire high-resolution imagery, officials announced Monday.

China debuts new upper stage in final launch of the year

December 30, 2018 Stephen Clark

A Chinese Long March 2D booster climbed into orbit from the Jiuquan space base in the northwest of the country Saturday, delivering seven small satellites to space on communications and weather research missions with the help of a new upper stage capable of firing more than 20 times over two days.

Soyuz launches cluster of 28 satellites

December 27, 2018 Stephen Clark

A Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East on Thursday carrying 28 satellites, including a pair of Russian mapping satellites, secondary payloads from Germany, Japan, Spain, South Africa, and a dozen Earth-observing CubeSats and eight commercial weather payloads for Planet and Spire.

Spy satellite launch on Soyuz rocket begins refresh of French military space capabilities

December 21, 2018 Stephen Clark

Launching for the 20th time from the jungle of South America, a Russian-built Soyuz booster rocketed into orbit Wednesday with a new eye in the sky for the French military, the first in a series of upgrades planned for the country’s defense satellites over the next five years.