Europe’s Vega light launcher has scored its first U.S. customer with a contract to launch a tranche of small, high-resolution remote-sensing satellites under Google’s Skybox Imaging initiative.

Company president Gwynne Shotwell says she expects the U.S. Air Force to certify the Falcon 9 by midyear, “if not sooner,” to fly midsized national security payloads.

Satellite Internet startup LeoSat has contracted with manufacturer Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy to conduct a one-year cost study of the company’s planned low Earth orbiting (LEO) constellation of high-throughput broadband satellites.

Built for Paris-based Eutelsat and Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) of Bermuda, the electric propulsion spacecraft need eight months to reach their final orbit, creating a lag between their March 1 launch and their ability to generate revenue.

"A deep ocean under the icy crust of Ganymede opens up further exciting possibilities for life beyond Earth," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

Europe's EDRS will use laser beam transmissions between low-Earth orbiting (LEO) spacecraft and commercial communications satellites in geostationary orbit to reduce the time it takes to get large quantities of remote-sensing data to the ground.

Like most missions with the two-seat Gemini capsules, Gemini 8 started out to be a first. As it turned out, there were two firsts in the mission depicted on the cover of March 28, 1966.

The cargo CST-100 also would offer unpressurized “upmass” to the International Space Station (ISS) in its throwaway service module.