Government members of the European Space Agency (ESA) have agreed to fund an extra €340 million per year to Arianespace for its planned Ariane 6 rocket currently in development. The cash is needed to pay for the non-activity of Arianespace because its new rocket is extremely late. An inaugural test flight for Ariane 6 is […]
Satellite builder Terran Orbital has won a modest $4.7 million (€4.5m) contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) for an “in-orbit servicing mission”. The news is extremely timely as Terran is holding a Town Hall virtual meeting today (October 26th) for shareholders, some of whom have expressed displeasure with the CEO and Board of Directors […]
The European Space Agency (ESA) is using an image of a giant spaceship, more like a massive cruiseliner than a space vehicle, as a teaser for its VLEO (Very Low Earth Orbit) scheme. ESA DG Josef Aschbacher says that ESA wants to “Unleash the potential of Very Low Earth Orbits: [and] calls for innovative missions, […]
SpaceX has signed a deal with the European Space Agency (ESA) over potential satellite launches, according to the WSJ. Normally – in fact almost always – ESA uses Arianespace rockets to launch its scientific and governmental missions. However, there are no Arianespace launches available until 2025. The first test flight of Arianespace’s new Ariane 6 […]
Josef Aschbacher, Director General at the European Space Agency (ESA), says that planned pre-launch testing schedule for the new Ariane 6 rocket has been amended in order to “optimise” the timetable. Aschbacher said: “In order to optimise the #Ariane6 testing schedule, the test sequence has been inverted. This allows us to anticipate the launch rehearsal […]
Eutelsat OneWeb, part of the Eutelsat Group, the satellite communications company, has confirmed that its low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation has successfully connected to a 5G mobile network, supporting 5G QoS levels for the first time. This milestone brings super-fast mobile phone connectivity to remote and rural areas one step closer. The achievement of […]
Airbus and Safran, who between them control ArianeGroup, are asking for an additional €210 million – over and above the €140 million a year it already receives – in order to operate the Arianespace rocket system. The news was revealed by Europe in Space and France’s La Tribune newspaper. The problem for ArianeGroup is that […]
Ariane 6, the giant replacement rocket for the European Space Agency (ESA), is already delayed until the end of 2024. Now the ESA says that is medium-lift rocket, Vega-C, is also delayed until Q4/2024. The news means that Europe doesn’t have a working rocket to launch commercial, scientific or military satellites, other than two remaining […]
UBS Switzerland is injecting €26.15 million into fellow-Swiss business SWISSto12 for further development of its HummingSat satellite division. The extra financing will provide SWISSto12 with flexible growth capital to meet strong customer demand for its geostationary SmallSat HummingSat. SWISSto12 has won a major order for one of its geostationary HummingSat craft from Intelsat (for IS-45) […]
The European Space Agency (ESA) has again postponed a test-firing of the rocket’s main stage. A statement on August 30th said that a planned test on August 29 was scrubbed because of problems which the Agency described as a “technical issue affecting the control bench” that handles propellant loading and the automated countdown. The key […]