Launch
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Arianespace preps for first of up to 13 launches in French Guiana this year
A European Ariane 5 rocket is scheduled for blastoff Tuesday from a jungle launch pad in South America with two geostationary telecom payloads — one owned by a Saudi Arabian operator and built in Colorado by Lockheed Martin, and another for India’s space agency.
Telesat taps Blue Origin to launch broadband satellite fleet
Telesat has selected Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket to "play a key role" in delivering potentially hundreds of broadband communications satellites into low Earth orbit under a multi-launch agreement announced last week, as Telesat officials prepare to select between two industrial teams to begin building spacecraft for the Internet network later this year.
ULA wins contract to launch NASA’s Lucy mission to visit unexplored asteroids
NASA has selected United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket to dispatch the Lucy spacecraft on a mission from Cape Canaveral in October 2021 to fly by seven unexplored asteroids, including six objects locked in orbits leading and trailing Jupiter, where scientists expect swarms of miniature worlds could hold clues about the formation of the solar system.
Chinese company inks deal to launch 90 commercial smallsats
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)
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
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.
Photos: Delta 4-Heavy blasts off from Vandenberg
The first of up to seven United Launch Alliance missions lifted off Jan. 19 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where a Delta 4-Heavy launcher fired into orbit with 2.1 million pounds of thrust from three hydrogen-fueled RS-68A main engines with a U.S. government spy satellite.
Falcon 9 rocket fires engines in key test ahead of Crew Dragon demo flight
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sporting human-rating upgrades such as new composite pressurant tanks briefly ignited its nine Merlin engines Thursday afternoon on a launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and SpaceX later declared the pre-launch milestone complete in preparation for a critical test flight with a commercial crew capsule as soon as late February.
Video: Zoomed in view of ignition of Falcon 9 engines in prelaunch test (members only)
Watch a zoomed in view of the Falcon 9 rocket with the first Crew Dragon capsule atop, briefly fire its engines for a crucial pre-launch test on Jan. 24, 2019 at launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.
Video: Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon briefly ignites engines (members only)
Watch as a Falcon 9 rocket with the first Crew Dragon capsule atop, briefly fired its engines for a crucial pre-launch test on Jan. 24, 2019.