The two SES satellites needed to complete the company’s C-band replacements will launch on Friday, March 17th, subject to the usual last minute weather considerations, on a SpaceX rocket. The announcement was made at the Washington Satellite 2023 show. Built by Northrop Grumman, SES-18 and SES-19 are set to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida. These […]
Astraius, the UK-based, horizontal launch company, has announced two key suppliers for its launch solution. Northrop Grumman has been selected as the first and second stage motor supplier, and Exquadrum will provide the upper-stage motor. Astraius is on-track for first launch in Spring 2024. The announcement received the support of the UK Space Agency at […]
2022 is on track to break all records for rocket launches. Indeed, Elon Musk’s SpaceX alone is responsible for a significant number of these launches; SpaceX added 16 launches spread across its own Starlink craft plus NASA missions as well as commercial launches. But China is matching SpaceX and, as at July 8th, had managed […]
Airbus has won an order for 42 satellite platforms along with their support services. The order comes from Northrop Grumman which will use add its own payloads to the platforms. The ultimate customer is the US Space development Agency. The Airbus/Northrop concept is to use the bulk supply order to provide more power within a […]
Just hours before NASA awarded a massive $2.9 billion contract to restart human flights to the Moon – and back – Elon Musk, in one of his Tweets, told an enquirer that SpaceX’s Starlink broadband-by-satellite service would be transitioning out of a widespread beta-programme into conventional usage “probably by this summer”. Moreover, Musk answered another […]
A Northrop Grumman Mission Extension Vehicle, MEV-2, successfully docked with Intelsat 10.02 on April 12th. MEV-2, as its name indicates, is the second rescue tug from Northrop Grumman used to make contact with an Intelsat craft and thus extend the mission of the orbiting satellite by around five more years. The rescue was a ‘first’ […]
Paris-based Eutelsat says it has won a contract to add a EGNOS payload onto an upcoming Hotbird satellite (13G) which will be launched in H1/2022. The contract comes from the European GNSS Agency and has a value of €100 million spread over the 15-year life of the satellite. Eutelsat says €85 million of the contract […]
Intelsat has brought its latest satellite, Galaxy-30, into service. The satellite is now providing Intelsat customers in North America with high-performance television-distribution services. In 2020 Intelsat announced plans to procure, build and launch seven C-band satellites over the next few years. Earlier this year, it announced a contract for two software-defined satellites that are scheduled […]
London-based Inmarsat says it is going to dramatically expand its existing Global Xpress (GX) fleet with extra satellites. In total, Inmarsat will see seven new satellites delivered over the next 3 years. Inmarsat GX network currently includes five geostationary satellites, with four built by Boeing. Its GX5 satellite, built by ThalesAleniaSpace, was brought into commercial […]
Commercial geostationary satellites are staying in orbit longer than ever, and well beyond their original design lives. A study from Roger Rusch, president of research firm TelAstra, In essence, Rusch says that while ten years ago in 2009 there were an average of 15 per cent of satellites with extended lives in orbit, today the […]