The growing list of potential smallsat launchers thinned out a bit last week with the news that DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has cancelled ALASA, the Airborne Launch Assist Space Access program which was awarded to Boeing in 2014. The story, reported in Space News, cites difficulties in maintaining safe control over the […]
One of the great things about the emerging cubesat launch market is that NASA is able to help no less than three different companies get off the ground by booking a launch for less than $18 million. On June 12th, NASA’s Launch Services Program announced that it was establishing a new class of launch vehicles, […]
NASA’s Launch Services Program, which operates out of Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, held a press teleconference on Monday to discuss its decision to add a new class of launch vehicles to its existing portfolio. Called VCLS, or Venture Class Launch Services, the new category is intended to help define and promote the burgeoning cubesat and […]
LauncherOne Factory Launch / Image Credit : Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic announced on Thursday that its is opening a dedicate factory in Long Beach, California for producing the LauncherOne small booster. Here is an excerpt from the press release, absent the obligatory statements from local officials:: LONG BEACH, Calif. – February 12, 2015 – Virgin […]
$16.5 Million Dollars Ago. OSC Pegasus Launches IRIS. Image Credit : NASA In case there was any doubt there is still a long, long way to go in reducing launch prices across the spectrum, consider this NASA press release from November 20th. CONTRACT RELEASE C14-047 NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for Ionospheric Connection Explorer NASA […]
After riding on the coattails of larger satellite launches, the increasing demand for smaller satellites and cubesats are beginning to drive the introduction of a new generation of air launched commercial rockets. Two new ventures, one in the U.S. and the other from Europe, are planning to join Virgin Galactic and Stratolaunch in the rapidly expanding field of air launched rockets. The first, based out of […]
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