December 2015

The first stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 landing at Cape Canaveral after orbiting 11 satellites for Orbcomm. Photo: SpaceX [Via Satellite 12-22-2015] After a challenging year, SpaceX has returned to flight with an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket that successfully performed the company’s long-time goal of landing the first stage after delivering a payload to orbit.…

Japan’s HTV 5 / Kounotori 5 ISS resupply vessel with Canadarm2. Photo: NASA Johnson [Via Satellite 12-22-2015] The Japanese government has agreed to support the International Space Station (ISS) until 2024, extending the nation’s participation through the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module and future cargo missions with the Kounotori spacecraft. The U.S. and Japanese governments cemented…

Rocket Lab’s Mahia Peninsula launch site. Photo: Rocket Lab [Via Satellite 12-22-2015] Rocket Lab began construction of an orbital launch site on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula last week, the company announced Dec. 21. The site, located on the East Coast of New Zealand’s North Island, will be home to the first launch of Rocket Lab’s…

Airbus Group Pavilion at the 2014 Farnborough International Airshow. Photo: Airbus Group / S. Marquardt [Via Satellite 12-22-2015] Airbus Group has signed a share repurchase agreement with French private equity firm Apax Partners to sell all of the share capital of the legal entities comprising its commercial satellite communications business. The decision marks the culmination…

Photo: Axesat [Via Satellite 12-22-2015] Axesat, a leading telecommunications provider in Latin America, has signed a deal with O3b Networks for High Throughput Satellite (HTS) capacity. The company intends to use the capacity to support Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with broadband capabilities and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) with 3G and 4G LTE connectivity for their…

Javier Ruete, CEO of TCC. Photo: TCC [Via Satellite 12-21-2015] TCC, a leading pay-TV services provider in Uruguay, is evolving its approach to the market as trends in video continue to transform. The company, which started as a content distributor solely through cable, made the decision not to be tied to any specific method of…

The Norwegian Escape at sea. Photo: Norwegian Cruise Line [Via Satellite 12-21-2015] Norwegian Cruise Line set a new record for “social media usage at sea” during the inaugural celebrations for Norwegian Escape, the newest and largest of the company’s 14-vessel fleet. From October 22 to November 11, cruisers logged 576,896 Facebook posts, 14,150 tweets and…

NICT Kashima Space Technology Center. Photo: NICT. [Via Satellite 12-21-2015] The French space agency CNES and Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) announced that in June the organizations completed a link test using a NICT Small Optical Terminal (SOTA) flying on a Japanese satellite in Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) and an experimental Optical Ground Station…

An artist’s depiction of DSP, SBIRS GEO and SBIRS HEO platforms in orbit around Earth. Photo: Lockheed Martin [Via Satellite 12-21-2015] The United States Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) has passed a major milestone for the new ground system for the Space-based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellites. For the first time,…

An AR1 engine model. Photo: Aerojet Rocketdyne [Via Satellite 12-21-2015] Aerojet Rocketdyne has completed a design review for the AR1 engine, which is under development as an alternative to the Russian-built RD-180 engine used to power the Atlas 5 rocket. During the design review, each of the 18 components and subsystems on the AR1 engine…