Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium Communications, has said the company is likely to launch on March 29 the fifth batch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites aboard a SpaceX-built Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceNews reported Monday. Desch, a 2018 Wash100 recipient, added the company expects subsequent launches to occur every five to six weeks to complete the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation. The sixth […] More

U.S. aerospace companies have shown interest in launching rockets from Brazil during a visit to the country’s Alcantara military base in December, Reuters reported Friday. Representatives from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Microcosm, SpaceX and Vector Space Systems participated in the trip that was organized by Rubens Barbosa, a former Brazilian ambassador to U.S. Raul Jungmann, Brazil’s defense […] More

A laboratory of the University of Colorado Boulder has secured a potential five-year, $16.2 million contract to help NASA process, analyze and manage data from a solar irradiance measurement instrument currently installed aboard the International Space Station. The university’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics will provide Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor-1 data products along with command procedures, scripts and […] More

Iridium Communications plans to launch on March 18 at 8:19 a.m. Pacific time the fifth batch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites aboard a SpaceX-built Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The planned launch would bring the total number of Iridium NEXT satellites in orbit to 50 as part of a potential $3 billion program to replace an existing constellation […] More

NASA is expected to proceed Tuesday with its live television coverage of a spacewalk on the International Space Station after Congress passed a three-week stopgap bill to end a government shutdown that went into effect Saturday, Spaceflight Now reported Monday. Astronauts Scott Tingle and Mark Vande Hei are scheduled to do a spacewalk Tuesday to […] More

A communications satellite made by Maxar Technologies‘ SSL subsidiary for  Hispasat has been delivered to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, where it will lift off aboard a SpaceX-built Falcon 9 rocket. SSL said Tuesday the Hispasat 30W-6 satellite will provide communications services for television, broadband, corporate networks and other telecommunications applications in Europe, North Africa and […] More

Orbital ATK plans to use its Cygnus spacecraft to perform two cargo delivery missions this year to the International Space Station under the first Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA, NASASpaceflight.com reported Friday. The ninth ISS cargo supply mission, dubbed OA-9, is set to take off in May aboard the Orbital ATK-built Antares rocket from […] More

Sierra Nevada Corp. has achieved a contractual milestone with NASA for the company-built Dream Chaser spacecraft after a test vehicle completed a free-flight test in November. SNC said Friday Dream Chaser cleared Milestone 4B under the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability contract, confirming that the spacecraft is designed to perform safe runway landings from space to Earth. NASA’s Commercial […] More

Sierra Nevada Corp. has awarded Triumph Group a contract to produce a landing gear system for a reusable lifting-body vehicle designed to support NASA‘s resupply mission to the International Space Station. Triumph said Tuesday it will provide main and nose landing gear along with integrated actuation technologies for door systems of Dream Chaser spacecraft SNC is building under its Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract […] More

Iridium Communications has started the testing and validation phase for the fourth batch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites that launched Friday aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Scott Smith, chief operating officer at Iridium, said in a statement published Wednesday the company’s team at the satellite network operations center started to conduct initial diagnostics minutes after the […] More

Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium Communications, told CNBC in an interview published Friday the Aireon system payload aboard NEXT satellites aims to help air traffic controllers track an aircraft’s position anywhere on Earth. “Aireon means airlines can fly more direct routes, which could reduce both the cost and time of air travel,” Desch said. The system aims […] More

Maxar Technologies, formerly MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, has received SpaceNews’ “Deal of the Year” award in recognition of the company’s acquisition of DigitalGlobe in an estimated $3.6 billion transaction. Maxar’s predecessor MDA closed the deal in October in a push to offer imagery, satellite and geospatial services across the government and commercial sectors, Maxar said […] More