Tag: Telecom
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Eutelsat plans satellite to assess potential for low-altitude constellation
Artist’s illustration of a six-unit, or 6U, CubeSat. Credit: NASA Ames Joining other established commercial geostationary satellite operators looking at fleets of communications platforms in low Earth orbit, Eutelsat announced Thursday it will launch a small testbed next year as a precursor to a potential network of data relay craft flying a few hundred miles…
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SES orders seven satellites from Boeing to help meet growing broadband demand
Artist’s concept of the O3b mPower satellites. Credit: Boeing Forecasting a future where satellite networks reach into vastly more ships, airplanes, homes and businesses, SES announced Monday it will buy at least seven high-capacity broadband and data relay satellites from Boeing for launch in 2021 into a rarely-used orbit several thousand miles over the equator.…
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Second launch of China’s Long March 5 heavy-lift rocket set for Sunday
The Long March 5 rocket begins its rollout to a launch pad at the Wenchang space center Monday, June 26. Credit: Xinhua China’s Long March 5 rocket is counting down to liftoff Sunday from the country’s tropical island space center with a high-power, electrically-propelled communications satellite. The heavy-lifter is scheduled to blast off from the…
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SpaceX rocket tagged for reuse test-fired in Texas
The test-firing of a previously-flown Falcon 9 first stage booster in late January paves the way for its second launch scheduled for no earlier than March. Credit: SpaceX The Falcon 9 first stage booster assigned to launch as soon as March on SpaceX’s first mission with a previously-flown rocket has been test-fired at the company’s…
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Fresh views of Saturday’s Falcon 9 rocket launch
Check out more imagery of Saturday’s liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, including pictures from remote cameras at the launch pad and new video released by the U.S. Air Force. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket soared into orbit from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base, heading off with 10 Iridium voice and…
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Photos: Falcon 9 returns to flight with weekend launch from California
Launching for the first time in four-and-a-half months, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Saturday morning with 10 satellites for Iridium’s space-based message relay network. Towering 229 feet (70 meters) tall and measuring 12 feet (3.7 meters) in diameter, the two-stage rocket fired into the sky on…
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Skywatchers: Get your Iridium flare fix now
Updated after successful launch. File photo of an Iridium flare. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now The launch of the first batch of new-generation Iridium communications satellites Saturday marked the beginning of the end for the predictable, spectacular flares of reflected sunlight produced by the old-design craft, a favorite of amateur skywatchers for nearly two decades. Iridium…
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Next SpaceX launch slipped to avoid stormy weather, range conflict
The mission patch for the first Falcon 9 launch for the Iridium Next satellite fleet shows the 10 satellites mounted on a special dispenser on the second stage, and the first stage descending to a vertical landing on a barge in the Pacific Ocean offshore California. Credit: SpaceX/Iridium Forecasters predict a rainy, breezy week along…
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Engine hotfire test completed for SpaceX’s first launch since explosion
File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now SpaceX’s launch team fueled up a Falcon 9 rocket on a California launch pad Thursday, fired the booster’s nine Merlin engines, and passed a key preflight test for the first time since a Falcon…
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Long March rocket blasts off on first launch of the year
A Long March 3B rocket lifted off at 1518 GMT (10:18 a.m. EST) Thursday. Credit: CCTV A new satellite bound for geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator launched aboard a Chinese Long March 3B rocket Thursday, but government officials have released little information about its mission. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported…