Momentus’ Russian CEO Resigns Over National Security, Foreign Ownership Concerns

News 0
Mikhail Kokorich

SANTA CLARA, Calif., January 25, 2021 (Momentus PR)–Momentus Inc. (“Momentus” or the “Company”), a commercial space company offering in-space infrastructure services, today announced its Board of Directors has appointed Dawn Harms, the Company’s Chief Revenue Officer, as a director and interim CEO effective immediately, following the resignation of director and founding CEO Mikhail Kokorich.

Momentus, in consultation with the Company’s announced SPAC partner, Stable Road Acquisition Corp. (“Stable Road”), has determined that accepting Mr. Kokorich’s resignation is in the best interest of the Company, in an effort to expedite the resolution of U.S. government national security and foreign ownership concerns surrounding the Company, the existence of which the Company recently has confirmed.

(more…)

Starliner Orbit Flight Test 2 Now Targeted for NET March 25

News 0
The Orbital Flight Test Starliner being processed by technicians after return from White Sands Missile Range. (Credit: Boeing)

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (Boeing PR) — NASA and Boeing are targeting no earlier than Thursday, March 25, for the launch of Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is a critical developmental milestone on the company’s path to fly crew missions for NASA. Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner is designed, built, tested and flown by a team committed to safely, reliably and sustainably transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

The target launch date is enabled by an opening on the Eastern Range; the availability of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket; steady progress on hardware and software; and an International Space Station docking opportunity.

(more…)

ICEYE Establishes World’s Top-Performing Persistent Monitoring Satellite Capabilities with 3 New SAR Spacecraft Launched

News 0
SpaceX Transporter-1 mission payload. (Credit: SpaceX)

This launch represents an ICEYE milestone of 10 satellite missions launched, bringing the company’s persistent monitoring capabilities with radar satellite imaging to an unparalleled level.

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 25, 2021 (ICEYE PR) – ICEYE, the global leader in persistent monitoring with radar satellite imaging, announces today the successful launch of three ICEYE SAR satellites on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 smallsat rideshare mission via EXOLAUNCH. This raises the total number of launched ICEYE missions to 10, including commercial and dedicated customer missions. Early operation procedures with all 3 spacecraft have been successfully finalized, and each satellite’s SAR instrument is currently going through commissioning.

(more…)

HawkEye 360 Announces Deployment of Next-generation Radio Frequency Sensing Satellites

News 0
HawkEye Cluster 2 satellites (Credit: HawkEye 360)

Deployment underscores company’s leadership within new industry of RF data collection and analytics

Herndon, Va., January 24, 2021) (HawkEye 360 PR) — HawkEye 360 Inc., the first commercial company to use formation-flying satellites to create a new class of radio frequency (RF) data and data analytics, today announced that Cluster 2 — the company’s second cluster of satellites — has successfully been deployed into orbit.

After launching aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 this Sunday morning, the trio of satellites was dispensed from Spaceflight Inc.’s Sherpa-FX orbital transfer vehicle and has established communications with the HawkEye 360 satellite operations center.

(more…)

Exolaunch Delivers 30 Small Satellites into Orbit on SpaceX’s First Dedicated Rideshare Launch

News 0

BERLIN (Exolaunch PR) — Exolaunch, the leading rideshare launch and deployment services provider for the NewSpace industry, announced a successful launch of 30 commercial, space agency, and university satellites for its customers from Europe and the U.S. on the first dedicated rideshare mission of SpaceX’s SmallSat Rideshare Program. The mission, named “Zeitgeist,” lifted off on January 24 at 15:00 UTC on Falcon 9 “Transporter-1,” completing one of the largest and most diverse rideshare missions for Exolaunch.

Zeitgeist kicked-off the first of several rideshares Exolaunch will manifest on Falcon 9 as part of a multi-launch agreement with SpaceX. On this mission, Exolaunch provided deployment, mission management and integration services to the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Dresden Technical University, ICEYE, NanoAvionics and other commercial companies for IoT, Earth observation and scientific applications.

(more…)

48 SuperDoves Join Planet’s Constellation To Deliver Global Daily Data

News 0
Falcon 9 launches Transporter-1 rideshare mission. (Credit: SpaceX webcast)

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (Planet PR) — 48 SuperDoves, our Flock 4s, were successfully delivered to orbit today on SpaceX’s Transporter-1 mission. This record-setting launch carried 143 satellites to orbit – the most spacecraft ever deployed on a single mission.

(more…)

Hiber Four Satellite in Space With Green CubeSat Propulsion Launched on SpaceX Rocket

News 0
Evaluation of a test Hiber nanosatellite took place in ESA’s metal-walled Hybrid European Radio Frequency and Antenna Test Zone (Hertz) at the Agency’s technical centre in the Netherlands, shut off from all external influences for radio testing.  (Credit: ESA–G. Porter)

DELFT, The Netherlands, 25 January 2021 (Dawn Aerospace PR) — IoT solutions provider Hiber has successfully launched their 3U CubeSat, Hiber Four, onboard SpaceX’s dedicated rideshare mission: Transporter-1. The satellite was equipped with a new-to-market green propulsion system from Dawn Aerospace and Hyperion Technologies.

(more…)

GHGSat ‘’Hugo’’ Spacecraft Launched on SpaceX Transporter-1 Mission

News 0
SpaceX Transporter-1 mission payload. (Credit: SpaceX)
  • GHGSat-C2 (“Hugo”) successfully separated from SpaceX rocket
  • Follows launch of GHGSat’s second satellite, “Iris” on September 2nd, 2020
  • Hugo is the result of GHGSat’s first collaboration with international leader in technology, ABB Measurement & Analytics Canada

MONTREAL, January 24, 2021 (GHGSat PR) – GHGSat, the global leader in high-resolution greenhouse gas monitoring from space, has successfully completed the launch of its third satellite, GHGSat-C2 (“Hugo”), which launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:00 ET / 15:00 UTC on January 24th, 2021.

(more…)

SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches D-Orbit ION Satellite Carrier with 20 Spacecraft Aboard

News 0

COMO, Italy (D-Orbit PR) — On January 24th, 2021, at 4:00 pm CET, we launched another ION Satellite Carrier atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), Florida. On the same day, 1 hour 16 minutes and 28 seconds the vehicle was successfully deployed into a polar orbit.

The spacecraft, named ION SCV Laurentius, is an upgraded and enhanced version of the vehicle launched in the fall of 2020, which precisely deployed twelve satellites in orbit. 

​During its mission, named PULSE, the vehicle will deploy 20 satellites, among which eight SuperDoves from Earth imaging company Planet Labs, and perform the in-orbit demonstration of two optical payloads from EICAS and Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) respectively, among other experiments on unique payloads

(more…)

Kepler Communications Announces Successful Launch of 8 New GEN1 Satellites

News 0
GEN1 satellite (Credit: Kepler Communications)

TORONTO, January 24th, 2021 (Kepler Communications PR) – Kepler Communications welcomed eight new satellites into their constellation today, further expanding the active constellation to 13 satellites in total. These eight satellites, KEPLER-8 through KEPLER-15, were successfully launched via SpaceX’s first dedicated SmallSat Rideshare Program mission at approximately 10:00 AM EDT this morning. Once fully operational within the constellation these will significantly increase the capacity of Kepler’s Global Data Services offering.

(more…)

Nanoracks Completes First SpaceX Rideshare Mission

News 0

CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, January 24, 2021 (Nanoracks PR) – Nanoracks is pleased to share the successful completion of the Company’s first mission on a SpaceX rideshare launch. Nanoracks brokered the launch and deployment of eight Spire LEMUR-2 CubeSats and of an emissions monitoring microsatellite, GHGSAT-C2 (“Hugo”).

Nanoracks’ first rideshare mission, dubbed “Eyries-1,” marks the Company’s entrance into the rideshare brokering market and the broadening of services for Nanoracks’ global customer base. This launch allowed Nanoracks to continue longstanding customer relationships and to foster new partnerships.

(more…)

SpaceX Launches Record 143 Satellites

News 0
Falcon 9 launches Transporter-1 rideshare mission. (Credit: SpaceX webcast)

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

SpaceX set a new world record on Sunday by launching 143 satellites into Earth orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.

The Sunday morning polar orbit launch included 133 commercial and government spacecraft along with 10 satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband communications constellation. The launch was conducted from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

(more…)

JAXA Selects Central American Team for KiobCUBE Fifth Round, Extends Program with UNOOSA for Sixth Round

News 0
Successful deployment of 1KUNS-PF (Kenyan Satellite, selected as first round of KiboCUBE) from Kibo in May, 2018. (Credit: JAXA)

TOKYO (JAXA PR) — The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) cooperate under the KiboCUBE program launched in 2015 to provide developing countries with opportunities to deploy CubeSats from the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Kibo of the International Space Station (ISS).

JAXA and OOSA have selected a team from the Central American Integration System (SICA), for the fifth round of KiboCUBE program, which called for applications from March 26, 2019 to September 30, 2019. It is the first time to select international organization in this program.

(more…)

The 7 Rocky TRAPPIST-1 Planets May Be Made of Similar Stuff

News 0
Measuring the mass and diameter of a planet reveals its density, which can give scientists clues about its composition. Scientists now know the density of the seven TRAPPIST-1 planets with a higher precision than any other planets in the universe, other than those in our own solar system. (Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Precise measurements reveal that the exoplanets have remarkably similar densities, which provides clues about their composition.

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — The red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 is home to the largest group of roughly Earth-size planets ever found in a single stellar system. Located about 40 light-years away, these seven rocky siblings provide an example of the tremendous variety of planetary systems that likely fill the universe.

(more…)

V-R3x CubeSats to Develop Communications, Navigation

News 0
Three small satellites, or CubeSats, used in the V-R3x technology demonstration. (Credit: NASA/Ames Research Center/Dominic Hart)

Swarming small satellites to develop the next generation of communication and navigation tech

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. (NASA PR) — Learning how to communicate and navigate multiple spacecraft autonomously in space is a technology challenge that will become even more important to solve as NASA continues to operate in low-Earth orbit and beyond.

The V-R3x mission uses a swarm of three small satellites to demonstrate new technologies and techniques for radio networking and navigation. By developing and demonstrating these technologies on a small scale, they can be implemented for future multi-spacecraft missions, enabling NASA to pursue its future science, technology, and exploration goals.

(more…)