A joint venture of Thales and Leonardo has received three contracts to produce technologies that can help NASA accomplish human space exploration missions and address commercialization objectives of the agency’s industry partners. Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Orbital ATK will collaborate with Thales Alenia Space under the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships-2 initiative as part of efforts to expand architectures designed […] More

Thales has inked an agreement with ArianeGroup to help design, develop, qualify and produce a telemetry transmitter for a European Space Agency-approved launcher. Thales said Tuesday the Ariane 6 telemetry transmitter will relay launcher-generated data to servers on the ground throughout the entire launch mission. “This contract shows our company’s ability to adapt to a […] More

Imarsat has selected France-based company Arianespace to help launch a fifth Global Xpress communications satellite from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. Arianespace said Friday it aims to send Global Express-5 satellite for Inmarsat into orbit with the  Ariane 5 heavy-lift launcher platform within the second half of 2019. Thales Alenia Space will build GX-5 based on the modernized […] More

Thales Alenia Space has inked a contract with the European Space Agency to help design the payload module for a joint science mission between ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The module for the Solar Wind Magnetospheric Ionospheric Link Explorer (SMILE) will host customer furnished science instruments from China, Canada and the U.K., Thales said Monday. […] More

Iridium Comxmunications has rescheduled to Oct. 4 the launch of a third batch of 10 NEXT communications satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, aboard a SpaceX-built Falcon 9 rocket. The company said Wednesday it began pre-launch processing activities on the satellites and the Falcon 9 rocket stages and components. The third Irdium NEXT launch was originally slated […] More

Iridium Communications plans to launch the third batch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites on Sept. 30 aboard a SpaceX-built Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The scheduled launch would bring the total number of Iridium NEXT satellites in space to 30 as part of a potential $3 billion program to replace an existing constellation with 75 new communications satellites […] More

Iridium Communications’ second batch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites lifted off Sunday aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to join the initial batch of satellites that took off in January. The launch brings the total number of Iridium NEXT satellites in space to 20 and marks the second of […] More

Iridium Communications CEO Matt Desch has said eight of the first 10 Iridium NEXT satellites that took off in January began to provide data and voice transmission service between March and mid-April, Spaceflight Now reported Friday. Stephen Clark writes Desch said at a quarterly earnings call Thursday that engineers have begun to reposition the two other satellites […] More

NASA plans to launch an instrument designed to measure Earth’s ozone as part of SpaceX‘s 10th cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. The agency said Saturday the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III on ISS  payload will launch with the SpaceX-built Dragon spacecraft this month from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SAGE III will be attached to […] More

An initial batch of 10 Iridium Communications satellites launched into space and transmitted signals to ground controllers Saturday in the start of the McLean, Va.-based company’s program to form its 81-strong, second-generation NEXT constellation for government and commercial customers around the world. Saturday’s launch is the first of seven for Elon Musk’s SpaceX outfit to carry out through early 2018 for Iridium in support […] More

Boeing and Saab have conducted the first flight test of a trainer aircraft the companies jointly developed for the U.S. Air Force‘s T-X competition. Boeing said Tuesday lead T-X test pilot Steven Schmidt and Air Force chief pilot Dan Draeger flew the aircraft for approximately 55 minutes to demonstrate key aspects of the single-engine jet as […] More

Iridium Communications has scheduled the launch of its next-generation global satellite constellation Iridium NEXT for Dec. 16 aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will carry 10 Iridium NEXT satellites to low-Earth orbit to replace an existing commercial satellite network in space, Iridium said Thursday. The planned launch announcement follows […] More