The six-engine behemoth now faces an intense flight campaign through the rest of this year as the focus begins to switch from envelope expansion to preparations for payload tests.
Hours after SpaceX delivered a batch of satellites into polar orbits from Florida—previously an exclusive West Coast route—Virgin Orbit pulled off the reverse feat: deploying its customers’ spacecraft into 45-deg. inclination orbits from the California-launched LauncherOne rocket.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Jan. 13 to deliver 105 satellites into a near-polar Sun-synchronous orbits, successfully completing its third discounted rideshare flight.
Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company that helped sweep in the current era of startup space companies quickly going public, shocked investors Jan. 13 with news it will raise as much as $500 million by issuing new debt.
The Airbus-sponsored Perlan 2 stratospheric glider will carry a Thales FlytLink satellite communications terminal when it returns to flight, enabling real-time data downloads from altitudes exceeding 90,000 ft.
Hypersonix Launch Systems has signed a collaborative agreement with the University of Sydney to research and manufacture key components of its proposed spaceplane, including its Spartan scramjet propulsion system.
Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, will be the base for several micro-launchers, which will help the European industry progress in reusability, according to Philippe Baptiste, chairman and CEO of French space agency CNES.
After contributing 31 flights to a global record 146 orbital launches in 2021, SpaceX kicked off the new year by adding another 49 new satellites to its growing Starlink broadband network.
AST SpaceMobile, a newly public company aiming to establish a space-based cellular broadband network for smartphones, has offered a peak inside its 85,000-ft.2 manufacturing headquarters in Midland, Texas.
Addman Engineering, the additive manufacturing rollup under private equity investor American Industrial Partners, has acquired Castheon, a refractory metals maker that has partnered with spacecraft-providing companies, the companies announced Jan. 3.
Large U.S. defense prime contractor L3Harris Technologies has reorganized to include just three main business divisions, with Aviation Systems and its top unit executive no longer part of the company’s structure.
The FAA on Dec. 20 granted a license to Spaceport Camden in Camden County, Georgia, for small-rocket launches to low Earth orbit after several years of local community debate.
SpaceX set a new record for Falcon 9 booster reuse, launching and landing its fleet leader for an 11th time on Dec. 18 as the company neared the end of a 2021 launch manifest that aims for a record 31 flights.
