An Ariane 5 rocket successfully orbited two satellites at 18.50pm local time on June 22nd from the French Guiana spaceport. MEASAT-3d for the Malaysian operator and GSAT-24 for India’s Space Research Organisation were the rocket’s two passengers in what was the first Ariane launch this year. “Mission VA257 will improve broadband coverage in the Asia-Pacific […]
Arianespace has been silent on any launch delays for its important Ariane 6 rocket. However, the director general of the European Space Agency, Josef Aschbacher, told the BBC that the new rocket will not fly until some time next year. Critics have suggested that Aschbacher did not attempt to disguise his words with phrases like […]
Rocket launch specialist Arianespace is to spin off a new subsidiary financed by France. MaïaSpace is the new business and the company will reportedly raise its own operational and financing cash. The end result is that MaïaSpace is targeted to become Europe’s version of SpaceX which currently dominates the world’s reusable rocket business with its […]
The news on April 5th that Jeff Bezos had signed unprecedented orders for rocket capacity to get Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband system operational did not go far enough. The announcement also kick-starts a five-year timetable and designed to compete head-to-head with Elon Musk’s Starlink operation which is already in business. Amazon had ordered up a […]
Jeff Bezos has ordered a massive series of rocket launches to get Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband system into space. Amazon has selected Arianespace, its own Blue Origin, as well as the United Launch Alliance for an overall 68 launches, split between the three giant launch providers. The three sets of contracts are by far the […]
UK-headquartered OneWeb is, with Arianespace, seeking a new satellite launch provider following Russia’s refusal to honour its contract to send around another 200 satellites into orbit. OneWeb has 428 craft already in orbit but needs a total of 600 to fulfil its target services, plus another 30-50 standing by as back-ups in case of individual […]
Last week, following high-level discussions and a major dispute between Russia and the UK and Indian-backed OneWeb, OneWeb pulled out of its March 4th launch using a Russian rocket from Baikonur managed by Russia’s Roscosmos space agency. The decision impacts not only this single launch of satellites but also a series of future – and […]
Russia’s space agency Roscosmos has suspended its cooperation agreement with Arianespace and is pulling out staff from the French launch site at Kourou in French Guiana. Roscosmos boss Dmitri Rogozin has tweeted confirming the action which he says is in retaliation over the trade sanctions imposed on Russia. The Russian Tweet said: “In response to […]
OneWeb, the low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications company, has confirmed the successful deployment of 34 satellites by Arianespace from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. This launch, the Company’s first in 2022 and 13th overall, brings OneWeb’s total in-orbit constellation to 428 satellites. It represents 66 per cent of OneWeb’s planned 648 […]
Arianespace says it is ready for a planned February 10th launch of 34 OneWeb low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellites. The launch, subject to the usual weather considerations, will happen on a Soyuz rocket from the Kourou launch complex in French Guiana. Current plan is for launch at 15.09pm, French Guiana time (18.09 pm UTC). Arianespace’s […]