Satellite News
Geostationary satellite orders bouncing back
Satellite builders booked more commercial orders in 2019 than the prior two years combined, but the industry remains in flux.
Airbus, citing weak space market, to cut more than 2,300 jobs
Airbus cited a « flat space market and postponed contracts on the defence side » for the decision to shed about 7% of its workforce and cut 829 jobs in Germany, 630 in Spain, 404 in France and 357 in Britain.. Airbus Defence and Space is the third satellite manufacturer to announce layoffs in the past 12 months. Thales Alenia Space said in September it was cutting around 6% of its workforce, following Maxar’s February 2019 announcement that it would dismiss roughly 3% of its employees.
SpaceX launches fifth batch of Starlink satellites, misses booster landing
SpaceX completed its fifth dedicated Starlink launch Feb. 17, successfully sending 60 satellites into low Earth orbit while missing what would have been the company’s 50th booster recovery.
Lockheed Martin lost $410 million on latest three commercial satellite orders
Lockheed Martin says it lost $410 million on the first three commercial satellites built on its new LM2100 platform, including the JCSAT-17 satellite Arianespace launched Feb. 18 on an Ariane 5 rocket.
Ball Aerospace-built Geostationary Air Quality Instrument Launches Successfully
The Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) instrument, jointly developed by Ball Aerospace and Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) under the leadership of Ball Aerospace
Exploration News
InSight to try to push mole into Martian surface
Engineers plan to use the robotic arm on its InSight Mars lander to push a heat flow probe into the surface, acknowledging that they have “few alternatives” if that effort fails.
Space Adventures to fly tourists on Crew Dragon mission
by Jeff Foust — February 18, 2020
Space Adventures announced Feb. 18 that it has an agreement with SpaceX to fly a dedicated Crew Dragon mission that would send four space tourists on a mission to a relatively high Earth orbit.
Launcher News
SpaceX revives plans for launch vehicle construction in Los Angeles
SpaceX has revived plans to develop a launch vehicle manufacturing facility at the Port of Los Angeles, a little more than a year after it abandoned its original agreement there.
Blue Origin opens Huntsville factory for BE-7 rocket engines
Blue Origin opened its rocket engine production facility in Huntsville, AL. The world-class engine manufacturing facility in The Rocket City will conduct high rate production of the BE-4 and BE-3U both for its vehicles and for United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket.
China quietly rolls out new rocket to launch mystery satellite
China has quietly rolled out a new Long March 7A rocket at a coastal launch site in preparation for launch of a ‘technology verification satellite’.
NewSpace News
Exotrail Secures Contract with AAC Clyde Space to equip their customers’ spacecrafts
Exotrail, a French company dedicated to providing innovative on-orbit transportation solutions for the small satellite market have signed a contract with AAC Clyde Space, Europe’s leading nanosatellites
Kleos Space secures 3M Euro loan agreement with Dubai family office
Kleos Space S.A, a space-powered Radio Frequency Reconnaissance data-as-a-service (DaaS) company, headquartered in Luxembourg, secured a euro 3.1 million loan agreement with Dubai-based family
