Raytheon has shipped the first small satellite for the Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements program to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for integration onto a Spaceflight Industries payload. The defense contractor said Wednesday it designed the SeeMe satellite to provide real-time tactical imagery to American soldiers deployed in remote and beyond-line-of-sight environments to […] More

James F. Palmer, former corporate vice president and chief financial officer at Northrop Grumman, has been appointed as a member of Vector‘s board of directors. He holds over 45 years of financial expertise in the aerospace industry, having formerly held executive roles at Boeing and Visteon in addition to Northrop, Vector said Monday. As a […] More

Iridium Communications CEO Matt Desch has said the company intends to deboost the last batch of its legacy satellites in the first quarter of 2019 as it plans to transition all network functions to the Iridium NEXT constellation, SpaceNews reported Wednesday. Desch, a four-time Wash100 recipient, told reporters Monday at World Satellite Business Week in Paris the company has […] More

Iridium Communications CEO Matt Desch told NASASpaceflight.com in an interview published Tuesday how the company’s satellite network and devices worked to help first responders communicate and perform recovery operations in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico last year. “We could see this tremendous spike [in Puerto Rico and some of the surrounding islands] as […] More

Seattle-based aerospace company Spaceflight aims to send 71 satellites into sun-synchronous low earth orbit aboard a SpaceX-built Falcon 9 rocket as part of a rideshare mission later this year. The mission, dubbed SSO-A: SmallSat Express, will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base and carry a payload of 15 microsatellites and 56 CubeSats developed by multiple domestic and international […] More

Iridium Communications CEO Matt Desch has said he expects the company to start a “capex holiday” over a 10-year period once it completes the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation, SpaceNews reported Monday. “I know the history of other satellite operators regarding capex holidays isn’t so good, but our motivations are very different,” Desch, a four-time Wash100 recipient, […] More

A state agency has proposed to establish a new launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to support the launch of Boeing’s Phantom Express unmanned vehicle, Florida Today reported Sunday. The  Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s teamed up with Boeing in May 2017 under the Experimental Spaceplane 1 program to help design, build and test a […] More

The U.S. Air Force could award a new set of Launch Service Agreements sometime during August, one month later than scheduled, SpaceNews reported Wednesday. The military service aims to select two domestic commercial launch service providers that can cover national security missions and send heavy and complex payloads to space. Northrop Grumman‘s innovation systems sector — then called Orbital […] More

Iridium Communications‘ recently launched batch of 10 NEXT satellites began pre-operational testing and validation process with systems functioning nominally. SpaceX launched the satellites Wednesday, bringing the NEXT constellation to 65 satellites, Iridium said Monday. The satellite communications firm aims to launch an eighth batch later this year to complete program. The upcoming set would bring the […] More

A NASA satellite designed to explore outer space for potentially life-supporting exoplanets entered service on July 25 and is expected to transmit science data back to Earth in August. The space agency said Saturday the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite will work to periodically send data every 13.5 days after the TESS Science Team receives the […] More

A communications satellite that Maxar Technologies‘ SSL business produced for Telesat has started to conduct post-launch operations. The Telstar 19 VANTAGE satellite deployed its solar arrays on time after launching aboard a SpaceX-built Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida early Sunday morning, Maxar said Tuesday. On early Tuesday, the satellite fired its main thruster […] More

Iridium Communications has changed its target launch date for a seventh batch of NEXT communications satellites to July 25. The company said Tuesday it rescheduled the Iridium-7 mission in order to give SpaceX more time to prepare the rocket that will carry the satellites into orbit. SpaceX launched the sixth NEXT batch May 22 from Vandenberg Air Force Base […] More