For Arianespace, the mission is a milestone, since it is the 100th launch of an Ariane 5 since its inception in 1996. The two satellites are the 206th and 207th launched by the heavy-lift vehicle.
Air launch space company Stratolaunch Systems has unveiled study plans for a pair of hypersonic flying testbeds that could be launched from the company’s very large carrier aircraft.
With the communications satellite market still in flux, launch service providers are counting on aggregators and manufacturers to broaden their product ranges.
The first five years of the Space Force is estimated to cost $12.9 billion, according to a Sept. 14 report included in a letter from Wilson obtained by Aerospace DAILY.
DARPA has returned to the stratospheric domain with a project aimed at demonstrating that a lighter-than-air balloon can drift between wind layers to navigate at altitudes up to 90,000 ft. for days or weeks at a time.