Commercial Space

Chinese private space company Orienspace has launched its first rocket into orbit, a solid-fueled Gravity-1 carrying three Yunyao-1 satellites, from a barge.

A propulsion system leak aboard the privately operated Peregrine spacecraft will preclude a planned landing on the Moon.

United Launch Alliance’s first Vulcan rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral SFS on Jan. 8.

The agency has a third contract with Axiom Space under a $140 million agreement reached in February 2020 to assemble an initial commercial ISS successor.

A record 223 orbital-class rockets lifted off last year, a 20% hike over 2022.

Astrobotic Technology is pitching an innovative strategy for the future mining of the Moon using rocket propulsion for extraction.

Performance benefits of Unity upgrades that were proved last year will feed into Delta spaceship design as belt-tightening forces cuts in near-term flight rate.

Japanese financing and leasing company SMFL Mirai and JAXA plan to design business concepts for satellite leasing and reselling.

SpaceX opened its 2024 launch manifest on Jan. 2 with a Falcon 9 mission to continue building its Starlink satellite constellation.

Rocket Lab has received a $489 million contract to design, build and operate 18 space vehicles on behalf of an undisclosed U.S. government customer.

NASA believes it can leverage commercial service industries for deep-space exploration.

It is time for the world to invest more spending in space situational awareness, according to the former president of the Portuguese Space Agency.

An orbital propellant depot and fueling service are keys to the Starship lunar lander architecture.

Major events in aerospace and defense during 2023.

In 2024, India and Boeing aim for low Earth orbit, while NASA eyes an excursion around the Moon.

From new fighters to launchers, airline production ramps to air taxi certifications, 2024 will be a busy year.

The head of the service says analysis is focusing on physical coverage gaps, along with ways to quickly analyze data.

After a 15-month hiatus to address a booster nozzle issue that caused its last launch to fail, Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle returned to suborbital space.

Axiom Space plans to install a data center on Hab One to be linked to the ISS and use laser communications equipment to connect it to Earth-orbiting satellites.

As hardware prices come down, Amazon’s Project Kuiper aims to connect “tens of millions of customers.”

The PE owners of legacy space-based services provider Maxar have divested their RF business that Maxar had acquired just 11 months earlier.

The UK Space Agency says it has taken on board criticism over the slow pace of licensing and the high cost of insurance associated with space launches.

The SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands, Scotland, has been awarded the first-ever UK Civil Aviation Authority license for a vertical-launch site.

Amazon’s two Project Kuiper prototype satellites have transmitted 100 gigabits per second of data using laser communications equipment.

Dawn Aerospace has run a full-duration, bipropellant ground test of its Mk-II Aurora spaceplane’s rocket engine.