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Redwire Corporation (NYSE: RDW) announced it has secured a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to act as the prime mission integrator for an air-breathing satellite. This satellite will demonstrate the use of new electric propulsion systems in very low-Earth orbit (VLEO) using Redwire's SabreSat VLEO platform. The program takes advantage of Redwire's expertise in VLEO capabilities. The importance of VLEO is increasing, particularly for national security missions. Spacecraft in VLEO operate in an environment that is less congested than low-Earth (LEO) and geosynchronous (GEO) orbits. VLEO spacecraft fly above anti-access areas while operating closer to the ground than current satellites. Additionally, debris in VLEO deorbits in hours or days, unlike LEO and GEO, where debris can take decades or longer to clear. https://lnkd.in/g9KXzHQi

Congrats to SpaceX for another successful falcon 9 launch. The launch was the first for a new series of dedicated rideshare missions intended to complement SpaceX’s existing Transporter missions 🚀 Unlike Transporter missions, which launch payloads into sun-synchronous orbits commonly used by remote sensing satellites, the Bandwagon missions are intended to send payloads to low Earth orbits at inclinations of about 45 degrees. Bandwagon-1 carried 11 satellites, including portfolio company HawkEye 360, which flew six of its radio-frequency geolocation satellites, called Clusters 8 and 9. Hawkeye chose Bandwagon-1 because the mid-inclination orbit offered improved coverage over low and mid-latitudes compared to sun-synchronous orbits. These satellites will further support HawkEye 360’s work to help monitor and prevent Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing across the Indo-Pacific region. Read more ⬇ https://lnkd.in/evyvqi_E

The Space Development Agency will start launching its next batch of satellites in March or April 2025, six months later than originally planned, but agency director Derek Tournear suggested he may try to increase the pace of launches after that to get back on schedule. Tournear offered the new timeline along with a host of updates on his organization’s low-Earth orbit constellation during an event with AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies on Nov. 19, including plans for future missile defense and position, navigation, and timing capabilities. SDA first started launching what it called its “Tranche 0” satellites in April 2023 and finished in February 2024—a process that also included several months of delays. All told, Tranche 0 includes 29 data transport and missile warning/tracking spacecraft in orbit to demonstrate their concept for a large LEO constellation. Tranche 1, consisting of more than 150 operational satellites, was supposed to start going up in September, followed by a launch every month for 10 months. But at the Defense News Conference on Sept. 5, Tournear revealed that the first launch would be pushed back to “around the end of this calendar year,” citing problems producing necessary parts at scale. Two months later, Tournear pushed the timeline back once again to March or April, saying suppliers had been overly optimistic in how fast they could scale production and solve supply chain delays, particularly for key components like optical communications terminals and encryption devices. “Tranche 0 was just getting the parts in hand. Tranche 1 is building up your manufacturing capability, which always goes slower than people anticipate,” Tournear said. Moving forward, though, Tournear said vendors have started hitting their production goals, and “we have high confidence that the schedule we have now is going to hold.” With satellites now being assembled “daily,” Tournear also suggested SDA may look for other ways to get back on schedule—and live up to its motto of “Semper Citius,” or “Always Faster.” #SDA #SpaceX #SemperCitius A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on April 2, 2023, launched the first 10 satellites for the Space Development Agency. (SDA)

🚀 Successful Launch: SpaceX's Falcon 9 and the NROL-113 Mission 🌌 Click Here to know more: http://surl.li/irasuf On September 5, 2024, SpaceX's Falcon 9 made headlines with the successful launch of the NROL-113 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Partnering with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and Northrop Grumman, this mission deployed a cutting-edge batch of reconnaissance satellites into low Earth orbit. The Falcon 9 rocket, with its designation B1063, notched up its 20th flight and achieved a milestone by landing on the droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" for the 100th time. This mission plays a crucial role in the NRO’s "proliferated architecture" strategy, significantly enhancing the U.S.’s space-based intelligence capabilities. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 has once again proven its reliability and innovation, underlining the strategic importance of satellite reconnaissance for national security. #SpaceX #Falcon9 #NROL113 #SatelliteLaunch #SpaceInnovation #TechNews #NationalSecurity 🚀

In its first foray into medium-inclination orbits, SpaceX has inaugurated its “Bandwagon” launch series, under 11 satellites. Last weekend, the company completed its debut in shared and distributed transport missions for orbits. The event, called Bandwagon-1, was launched from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A on April 7 by a Falcon 9 rocket. This mission deployed 11 satellites, including one from “Project 425” destined for the South Korean military, signaling a growing demand for more Bandwagon missions to medium inclination orbits. 👉🏻 For more information, read the full news below https://lnkd.in/ew8-uUK6 #industrynews #satellite #

Japan's space agency announced Friday a plan to launch a major upgrade to its satellite imaging system, as a new flagship rocket is put to the test for a third time. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency stated that an H3 rocket will be launched from the Tanegashima Space Center, on a southwestern Japanese island, early afternoon on June 30, with a launch window that runs through the end of July. The rocket will be carrying an Advanced Land Observation Satellite, ALOS-4, tasked primarily with Earth observation and data collection for disaster response and mapmaking, as well as monitoring military activity, such as missile launches, with an infrared sensor developed by the Defense Ministry. The ALOS-4 is a successor to the current ALOS-2 and can observe a much wider area. The launch will be the H3's third, coming after a failed debut in March 2023 and a successful launch on Feb. 17. During the first attempt, the rocket's second stage engine did not ignite and the rocket had to be destroyed along with its main payload, a satellite that was supposed to be the ALOS-3. During H3 No. 2's successful test flight, it carried two commercially-developed observation microsatellites and an ALOS mockup. JAXA and its main contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have been developing H3 as a successor to its current mainstay, H-2A, which is set to retire after two more flights. MHI will eventually take over H3 production and launches from JAXA and hopes to make it commercially viable. Japan sees a stable, commercially competitive space transport capability as key to the country's space program and national security. The 57-meter (187-foot) long H3 rocket is designed to carry larger payloads than the H-2A at about half its launch cost. #JAXA #ALOS4 #H3Rocket

Japan launches military communications satellite on 4th flight of H3 rocket Japan's new H3 rocket flew for the fourth time ever on Monday morning (Nov. 4). The H3 launched Kirameki 3, a military communications satellite also known as DSN-3, from Tanegashima Space Center on Monday at 1:48 a.m. EST (0548 GMT; 3:48 p.m. local Japan time). The flight was apparently a success: Kirameki 3 deployed at about 29 minutes after liftoff as planned, eliciting cheers and handshakes in mission control, as seen in the launch webcast by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The two-stage H3 is Japan's new workhorse medium-lift rocket, the successor to the H-2A, which is about to retire after more than two decades of service. The H-2A has just one mission left, and it's expected to lift off before the end of the year. The H3, which was developed by JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, debuted in March 2023, about three years later than originally planned. That first launch failed, resulting in the loss of the payload — the Advanced Land Observing Satellite-3 (ALOS-3, also known as DAICHI-3). The rocket's next two flights were successful, however. This past February, the H3 carried a 5,900-pound (2,600 kilograms) mass simulator to orbit and also successfully deployed two small Earth-observation satellites. Then, on June 30, the rocket delivered the ALOS-4, or DAICHI-4, Earth-observation satellite to low Earth orbit as planned. Monday morning's launch targeted a more distant destination geostationary orbit, which lies 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) above Earth. At this altitude, satellites complete one orbit in exactly one Earth day, meaning that satellites in geo "hover" over the same patch of the planet continuously. According to NextSpaceflight.com, Kirameki 3 will be operated by DSN Corporation and "will be used for military communications by the Japanese military." The satellite will communicate in the X band, part of the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

[SpaceX Launching 30 Satellites On Bandwagon-2 Rideshare Mission Early Dec. 21] SpaceX plans to launch 30 satellites to orbit early Saturday morning (Dec. 21). A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday at 6:34 a.m. EDT (1134 GMT; 3:34 a.m. local California time), kicking off a rideshare mission SpaceX calls Bandwagon-2. The company will webcast the action live via its X account beginning about 15 minutes before launch. Thirty satellites are going up on Bandwagon-2, including payloads for South Korea's Agency for Defense Development as well as "Arrow Science and Technology, Exolaunch, HawkEye 360, Maverick Space Systems, Sidus Space, Tomorrow Companies Inc., True Anomaly and Think Orbital," SpaceX wrote in a mission description. SpaceX has launched one Bandwagon mission already Bandwagon-1, which sent up 11 satellites this past April. The company also launches other rideshare missions with a series it calls "Transporter." SpaceX has launched 11 Transporter missions to date. The first one, which flew in January 2021, lofted 143 satellites to orbit, a single-launch record that still stands. If all goes according to plan on Saturday, the Falcon 9's first stage will return to Earth about eight minutes after launch, landing vertically back at Vandenberg. It will be the 21st flight for this particular booster, according to the SpaceX mission description. That's just three away from the company's rocket-reuse record. The Bandwagon-2 mission description does not give a timeline for the deployment of the 30 satellites. Source: https://lnkd.in/ecmUW2W7 #galaxyaerosgh #space #spaceexploration #SpaceNews

New Post: SES’s Seventh and Eighth O3b mPOWER Satellites Successfully Launched, Bolstering MEO Constellation - https://lnkd.in/d95zByqz announced today that its latest pair of O3b mPOWER satellites was successfully launched into space by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United States, at 5:26 pm local time. Both satellites will join the first six O3b mPOWER spacecraft already in operation at medium Earth orbit (MEO), adding incremental …

[SpaceX Launches 30 Satellites On Bandwagon-2 Rideshare Mission] SpaceX launched 30 satellites to orbit early Saturday morning (Dec. 21). A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday at 6:34 a.m. EDT (1134 GMT; 3:34 a.m. local California time), kicking off a rideshare mission SpaceX calls Bandwagon-2. Thirty satellites went up on Bandwagon-2, including payloads for South Korea's Agency for Defense Development as well as "Arrow Science and Technology, Exolaunch, HawkEye 360, Maverick Space Systems, Sidus Space, Tomorrow Companies Inc., True Anomaly and Think Orbital," SpaceX wrote in a mission description. SpaceX has launched one Bandwagon mission already Bandwagon-1, which sent up 11 satellites this past April. The company also launches other rideshare missions with a series it calls "Transporter." SpaceX has launched 11 Transporter missions to date. The first one, which flew in January 2021, lofted 143 satellites to orbit, a single-launch record that still stands. As to plan on Saturday, the Falcon 9's first stage returned to Earth about eight minutes after launch, landing vertically back at Vandenberg. It was the 21st flight for this particular booster, according to the SpaceX mission description. That's just three away from the company's rocket-reuse record. SpaceX did not give a timeline for the deployment of the 30 satellites. Source: https://lnkd.in/ecmUW2W7 #galaxyaerosgh #space #spaceexploration #SpaceNews