Rocket company Arianespace has received orders for five launches from the European Commission (EC). The orders come from the EC’s Director General for Defence, Industry & Space. The French group said it will launch five Sentinel satellites between 2024 and 2026 for the Copernicus programme to provide Europe with reliable access to earth observation data. […]
Arianespace has been beset by delays in the development of its new Ariane 6 rocket. The company blames Covid and the pandemic’s affect on component production for the new rocket. Arianespace has said that the new rocket will launch around Q4 2023. The launch company says it will take up to 2026 to ramp up […]
Europe’s upcoming Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) super-secure satellite, the ESA’s Eagle-1, will be launched for SES by Arianespace on a Vega C rocket from French Guiana as early as Q4/2024. The satellite will be placed into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The EAGLE-1 project comprising satellite and ground infrastructure, is developed by SES and its consortium […]
The European Space Agency (ESA) has admitted that the delayed launched of Arianespace’s new Ariane 6 rocket is not now likely to make its debut flight for another year. The new hope is for a launch in Q4 2023. Ariane 6 was first planned to launch in July 2020. Covid hasn’t helped, but with the […]
OneWeb will see 36 of its broadband communication satellites launched later this month. India’s Space Research Organisation (ISRO) stated that it would use is heavy-launch rocket on its debut into the commercial launch market. ISRO says that as part of its contract with Arianespace, 36 satellites will be placed into orbit by its GSLV Mk3 […]
Following the suspension of its launches in March 2022, LEO satellite operator OneWeb and launch services company Arianespace have reached an agreement pursuant to which performance of the Launch Services Agreement may be resumed in the future. The terms of the settlement are confidential, but are understood to involve OneWeb receiving compensation. Arianespace is supporting […]
An Ariane 5 rocket successfully orbited two satellites at 18.50pm local time on June 22nd from the French Guiana spaceport. MEASAT-3d for the Malaysian operator and GSAT-24 for India’s Space Research Organisation were the rocket’s two passengers in what was the first Ariane launch this year. “Mission VA257 will improve broadband coverage in the Asia-Pacific […]
Arianespace has been silent on any launch delays for its important Ariane 6 rocket. However, the director general of the European Space Agency, Josef Aschbacher, told the BBC that the new rocket will not fly until some time next year. Critics have suggested that Aschbacher did not attempt to disguise his words with phrases like […]
Rocket launch specialist Arianespace is to spin off a new subsidiary financed by France. MaïaSpace is the new business and the company will reportedly raise its own operational and financing cash. The end result is that MaïaSpace is targeted to become Europe’s version of SpaceX which currently dominates the world’s reusable rocket business with its […]
The news on April 5th that Jeff Bezos had signed unprecedented orders for rocket capacity to get Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband system operational did not go far enough. The announcement also kick-starts a five-year timetable and designed to compete head-to-head with Elon Musk’s Starlink operation which is already in business. Amazon had ordered up a […]