Launch
Stories about the companies building a ride to space.
Above the Clouds Pushed Back a Day
Yesterday, newly public Virgin Orbit (NASDAQ:VORB) held a pre-flight press briefing for its upcoming Above the Clouds mission. Virgin’s LauncherOne rocket and Cosmic Girl will take off from Mojave Air and Space Port in California, and follow a flight path approximated in the graphic above. Manifest: Four Pentagon R&D satellites, a NASA-sponsored university payload, two nanosatellites for Polish…
Arianespace Takes a Victory Lap
On Thursday, the French rocket firm recapped a robust year of launch. At a glance: Revenues grew 30% annually to €1.25B (~$1.4B), powered by 15 successful launches (+5 YoY). Arianespace’s three different vehicles—Ariane, Soyuz, and Vega—transported 305 satellites to orbit from three different launchpads. And what better way to close out 2021 than by launching Webb? Thanks to the…
Firefly Pauses Launch Preparation Pending Divestment
Firefly Aerospace will temporarily stop preparations for an early 2022 Alpha launch, following a CFIUS recommendation that a foreign owner divest his equity stake, Bloomberg reports. That stake, about 50% of Firefly shares, is owned by US venture fund Noosphere Venture Partners, run by Ukrainian-born investor/entrepreneur Max Polyakov. CFIUS = The US Committee on Foreign Investment in the United…
Rocket Lab Rinses and Repeats
Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) successfully completed its 22nd launch, “Love At First Insight,” with Electron last week. The rocket transported two BlackSky Earth observation satellites to orbit, bringing Rocket Lab’s satellite launch total to 107. With a twist: Love at First Insight involved a controlled splashdown of the rocket’s first stage. Rocket Lab stationed a helicopter…
Astra Reaches Orbit
Astra (NASDAQ: ASTR) successfully reached orbit Saturday. The small launcher’s LV0007 vehicle lifted off from a Kodiak, AK, spaceport, with a dummy payload for the US Space Force. “The team’s worked so hard on this for so many years,” Astra cofounder CEO Chris Kemp said on NASASpaceflight’s launch livestream. “We’re just getting started, folks,” he tweeted. LV0008, LV0009,…
Orbital Launches in Q3, by the Numbers
BryceTech has released its latest quarterly briefing on rocket launches and satellite deployments from around the world. By launch frequency (total spacecraft #s in parentheses)… China’s CASC led Q3 with 15 orbital launches (and 30 total spacecraft launched) Arianespace conducted five launches (but transported the most spacecraft—111—of any provider) SpaceX took bronze, with three orbital trips (and…
iRocket and Turion Sign Launch Services Agreement
This morning, iRocket and Turion Space announced a multi-mission launch services agreement. The startups are focused on getting to space and providing in-space services, respectively. Getting to space: iRocket is developing Shockwave, a reusable and fully autonomous small launch vehicle. The three-year old company is backed by the US Space Force, the M&J Engineering Group, and…
Morgan Stanley Note Emphasizes SpaceX’s “Double Flywheel” of Starship, Starlink
Can anyone catch SpaceX? That’s the question posed by a Morgan Stanley Research team in a recent, updated note to investors. Spoiler alert: The analysts seem to believe the answer is no. Payload read and digested the updated memo, which was first covered Tuesday by CNBC. For starters, the report is front-loaded with choice quotes from investors: …
Astra Readies LV0007
Yesterday, Astra gave the space community—and its investors—a twofer. The small rocket company has set a date for its next launch attempt: Oct. 27–31 (or Nov. 7–12, if needed). LV0007, Astra’s seventh rocket, will carry a test payload for the US Space Force and launch from Kodiak, Alaska. Astra offered up an explanation of what…
