Commercial Space

The uncrewed Starliner flight test is part of a joint NASA-Boeing program to develop crew transportation services to the ISS and future destinations in low Earth orbit.

Commercial flights are targeted to begin in late 2024, according to the company.

The satellite company is weeks from restoring service to all users but is wary about sharing too many details of the Feb. 24 attack.

Aerospace industry executives are committing to a spacefaring future that represents all of humanity.

The space vehicle is schedule to launch into orbit in October via SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Transporter 6 rideshare mission, the company said May 16.

Virgin Orbit, the newly public satellite launch provider, saw revenue halve and its net loss double in the first quarter of 2022.

After 29 months, Boeing will again attempt to fly its commercial space taxi to the space station.

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

After its KA-SAT satellite internet service in Europe was disrupted on Feb. 24 by an alleged cyberattack from Russia, Viasat shared details of the attack with industry competitors via the U.S. Space Force’s Commercial Integration Cell.

Fresh off the success of the first U.S. private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, Axiom Space has broken ground on a headquarters campus at Houston Spaceport to support work on the first U.S. commercially developed and operated space station.

UK space startup Orbex has unveiled a fully completed prototype of the company’s Prime satellite launcher.

Satellite air launch company Virgin Orbit has secured an agreement with conversion specialist L3 Harris Technologies to acquire two Boeing 747-400 airframes to support growth plans for additional launch capacity.

Lockheed Martin-General Motors lunar vehicle designed to transit moon autonomously for prepositioned rendezvous with incoming missions.

The U.S., the European Union and multiple other nations on May 10 formally attributed cyber attacks against Viasat’s KA-SAT network on Feb. 24 to Russia, claiming Moscow attempted to disrupt Ukrainian command and control as the invasion began.

U.S. launch startup Astra Space has teamed up with the UK’s SaxaVord Spaceport as a potential new location for satellite launches.

The highly anticipated debut of the WorldView Legion high-resolution constellation from Maxar Technologies is slipping again, this time to September, as the Colorado company works through a test configuration anomaly, executives announced late May 9.

Xona Space Systems has finished environmental testing of its Huginn demonstrator satellite ahead of its planned May 25 launch on SpaceX’s Transporter 5 rideshare mission.

With its first launch in the offing, Vega C is to start a series of key and long-awaited evolutions in Arianespace’s offering.

Blue Origin’s next flight of the New Shepard suborbital spacecraft will include its first repeat customer.

Momentus’ space tug demonstrator has arrived at Cape Canaveral for its inaugural launch aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-5 mission after its application for payload review won FAA approval.

Space-based cellphone connectivity provider AST SpaceMobile, which went public last year after a deal with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), will raise $75 million by selling more stock.

Maritime Launch Services, which aims to establish Canada’s first indigenous space launch from Nova Scotia, and rocket manufacturing startup Reaction Dynamics of Quebec are partnering for a 2023 debut.

Virgin Galactic is slipping its forecasted start of revenue-generating commercial operations to the first quarter of 2023 instead of this year, executives announced May 5 while revealing the space tourism provider’s latest quarterly loss.

Spire of San Francisco signed a contract to provide weather data collected by its satellites to Gale Force, a maritime routing software company.

The CEO of Avio does not see any problem in the medium term regarding supply of the RD-843 engines that power its upgraded Vega C light launcher, despite their Ukrainian origin.