by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Powered by 33 flights of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster, the United States leads all nations with 48 launch attempts through the first seven months of the year. The total is three short of the number of U.S. launches attempted last year, and far ahead of the 27 launches conducted by second place China through the end of July. The U.S. has conducted more launches than the 43 flights conducted by the rest of the world combined.

A number of notable flights were conducted. SpaceX launched two Crew Dragons to the International Space Station (ISS), including the first fully privately funded mission to the orbiting laboratory. United Launch Alliance (ULA) launched Boeing’s CST-100 Starship crew vehicle on an automated flight test to ISS, a crucial step before astronauts to fly on the spacecraft. Small satellite launch provider Rocket Lab conducted its first deep-space mission by sending a spacecraft the size of a microwave to the moon.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

It was a busy first half of 2022 that saw 77 orbital launches with 74 successes and three failures through the 182nd day of the year on July 1. At a rate of one launch every 2 days 8 hours 44 minutes, the world is on track to exceed the 146 launches conducted in 2021.

A number of significant missions were launched during a period that saw more than 1,000 satellite launched. SpaceX flew the first fully commercial crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS), Boeing conducted an orbital flight test of its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, China prepared to complete assembly of its space station, South Korea launched its first domestically manufactured rocket, and Rocket Lab sent a NASA mission to the moon.

Let’s take a closer look at the numbers.

SpaceX launched 53 Starlink broadband satellites to low-Earth orbit aboard a Falcon 9 booster on Wednesday, May 18, from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The first stage booster supporting the mission on Wednesday previously launched Arabsat-6A, STP-2, COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2, and one Starlink mission. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth and landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship stationed in […]

Strategic agreement positions Satellogic to achieve weekly remapping of the entire surface of the Earth in 2023 and over 20 daily revisits of any point of interest, unlocking countless commercial, sustainability, and government applications

New York, NY, May 4, 2022 (Satellogic PR) – Satellogic Inc. (NASDAQ: SATL), a leader in sub-meter resolution Earth Observation (“EO”) data collection, announced today that it has signed a new Multiple Launch Agreement (“MLA”) with SpaceX reserving launch capacity for its next 68 satellites. This new MLA follows the current MLA covering 2022 launches, and confirms that SpaceX continues to be Satellogic’s preferred vendor for rideshare missions, meeting the capacity demands of Satellogic’s constellation roadmap and providing shorter periods between satellite development and deployment.

by David Bullock
Staff Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, Fla., April 1, 2022 — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 40 payloads as part of the company’s Transporter-4 dedicated smallsat rideshare mission.

The rocket launched into a sun-synchronous orbit at 12:24 p.m. EDT. The mission manifest included the first satellite orbited by Pixxel of India, Kleos Space’s Patrol Mission, and 12 Spacebee communications satellites. A list of payloads is below.

PALO ALTO, Calif. & BANGALORE, India (Pixxel PR) — Pixxel, a leader in cutting-edge earth-imaging technology, announced a $25 million Series A led by Radical Ventures, a Toronto-based firm known for investing in entrepreneurs that use artificial intelligence to transform massive industries. Additional participation in Pixxel’s Series A comes from Jordan Noone, Seraphim Space Investment Trust Plc, Lightspeed Partners, Blume Ventures, and Sparta LLC. The new funding enables Pixxel to expedite production of the world’s highest resolution hyperspectral satellite constellation and to offer industry AI-powered insights that discover, solve, and predict climate issues at a fraction of traditional satellite costs.

Statement From Spaceflight Inc.

The SpaceX Rideshare Team sent an email last Friday morning to an undisclosed list of rideshare customers and that email said:

“For awareness, we will no longer be flying or working with Spaceflight Industries after currently manifested missions. We look forward to reliably launching all customers currently on manifest and growing our relationships with new operators as well.”

In an effort to provide transparency to our customers and the industry, we wanted to share a few additional thoughts and comments.

SpaceX cut ties on Friday with long-time partner Spaceflight Inc., which integrates customer payloads on rideshare launches. SpaceNews reports that the decision surprised Spaceflight Inc. executives, who received a text message just before SpaceX notified rideshare customers via email it would no longer work with the company. The article recounts that a Spaceflight Sherpa space tug from the Transporter-3 launch in December due to a leak in the propulsion system […]

Upcoming launch will introduce a new satellite model with enhanced proprietary technology, enabling Satellogic to scale its constellation of satellites and increase client offerings and product quality

NEW YORK (Satellogic PR) — Satellogic Inc. (NASDAQ: SATL), a leader in sub-meter resolution satellite imagery collection, announced today it has shipped five satellites to be launched in early Q2 from Cape Canaveral. The launch will be part of SpaceX’s Transporter-4 mission onboard the highly flight-proven Falcon 9 reusable, two-stage rocket, under SpaceX’s Rideshare program.

The space logistics and orbital transportation company signed a contract with US launch provider Spaceflight Inc. to deliver the Kleos Patrol Mission (KSF2) satellites into orbit aboard the next ION Satellite Carrier mission, scheduled for April 2022.

FINO MORNASCO, Italy, March 1, 2022 (D-Orbit PR) — D-Orbit, the space logistics and orbital transportation company, announced today the signing of a launch contract with US launch provider Spaceflight Inc. to remanifest the four satellites of Kleos Space S.A. (ASX:KSS, Frankfurt:KS1, Kleos), a space-powered Radio Frequency Reconnaissance data-as-a-service (DaaS) company, to be launched and deployed on the next mission of D-Orbit’s ION Satellite Carrier, on the SpaceX Transporter-4 mission. The mission will feature D-Orbit’s ION Satellite Carrier, the Company’s flexible and cost-effective satellite platform able to precisely deploy satellites in orbit and facilitate the testing of new technologies in space.