Tag: commercial

New developments at Canada’s two competing spaceport projects

9:40 am

Proposed Canadian spaceports
Proposed Canadian spaceports

It appears things are beginning to happen at the two proposed Canadian spaceports, as shown on the map to the right.

First, the long struggling Nova Scotia spaceport project by Maritime Launch Services, first proposed in 2016, has finally sealed its $1.7 million deal with the Canadian rocket startup Reaction Dynamics. That deal was first announced in October 2024, but apparently was not finalized until now. Reaction will not only do a suborbital launch from the spaceport, it will invest about $1 million in the spaceport itself.

Whether this Nova Scotia spaceport finally begins operating remains to be seen. It has been promising orbital launches since 2016, without any actually happening.

Second, the Canadian rocket startup Nordspace announced that it has begun construction of its own launch site, dubbed the Atlantic Spaceport Complex, in Newfoundland.

The Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX) is a cornerstone of NordSpace’s mission to deliver sovereign and assured space access for Canada through an end-to-end space missions capability. The initial $10M phase of development for the Atlantic Spaceport Complex will feature two sites. SLC-01 will feature two launch pads for orbital missions including NordSpace’s Tundra vehicle and international launch partners from the U.S. and Europe. SLC-02 will consist of at least one smaller launch pad for suborbital missions, radar systems for vehicle tracking and space domain awareness, and other ground support equipment to enable all launch operations at the ASX.

The company hopes to complete a suborbital launch with what it calls its Taiga rocket later this month.

Nordspace only announced its existence in July 2024, almost a decade after the Nova Scotia project. Yet it appears it will be first to complete a commercial suborbital launch. Nova Scotia did have a suborbital launch in 2023, but it was a student project, not a commercial rocket.

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Portugal issues spaceport license to Santa Maria Island

9:03 am

Santa Maria spaceport

Portugal today issued a spaceport license to the Atlantic Spaceport Consortium (ASC) that wishes to build an orbital spaceport on the island of Santa Maria in the Azores, located about 900 miles west of the mainland.

On 13 August, ASC and the Portuguese Space Agency announced in a joint statement that the consortium had received a licence to operate a launch site on the island. The licence was issued by the country’s Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM), the entity acting as Portugal’s space authority. The licence is valid for five years and does not cover the launch operations themselves, which will be subject to a separate licensing process on a per-launch basis.

ASC has already conducted two demonstration suborbital launches there. In addition, it has signed a deal with the Polish rocket startup SpaceForest for additional suborbital launches.

This location is excellent for orbital launches, though getting rockets to it is an extra cost that will at least initially limit its appeal. Either way, it appears the Portuguese government does not wish to stand in the way of progress, and has been moving fast to clear away the red tape.

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Two launches today less than 20 minutes apart

6:06 pm

Arianespace and ULA both successfully completed launches today, less less than 20 minutes apart.

First Arianespace placed in orbit a new European weather satellite, its Ariane-6 lifting off from French Guiana in South America on its second commercial launch and third launch overall.

Next, ULA launched a Space Force national security classified payload, its Vulcan rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. This was the Vulcan’s third launch, and the first in 2025. It is also its first commercial launch, and the first since the military certified the rocket for its use. It was also the first since a nozzle fell off a strap-on booster during its last launch in October 2024. On this launch it used four boosters, all of which functioned as planned.

For Arianespace (and Europe) this was its fourth launch in 2025 so it does not make the leader board for the 2025 launch race. Similarly, this was ULA’s third this year, so it also does not make the leader board.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

98 SpaceX (with another Starlink launch scheduled for later today)
43 China
11 Rocket Lab
9 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 98 to 76.

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France’s military awards orbital tug startup contract for transporting its “inspector” satellites

9:51 am

France’s Directorate General of Armament (DGA) has awarded the orbital tug startup Infinite Orbits a $58.3 million contract to develop a tug that can transport its military “inspector” technology to geosynchronous orbit when it can rendezvous and inspect other satellites.

Under the PALADIN framework agreement, Infinite Orbits will develop a dedicated spacecraft capable of delivering the geostationary orbit inspection and monitoring service that will be utilized by the country’s Commandement de l’Espace (CDE – Space Command). The spacecraft is expected to be ready for launch as early as 2027 and will be based on Infinite Orbits’ Orbit Guard offering.

Infinite Orbits is based in France, though it also has offices in the U.S. and Singapore. It has also flown one demo mission of its Orbit Guard tug, and won a contract for a later mission from France’s space agency CNES. It is also developing a satellite servicing robot dubbed Endurance.

Overall, Europe (and France surprisingly) has latched onto the capitalism model with amazing enthusiasm in the past two years, to a point that it might actually be doing it better than NASA. Europe doesn’t have a giant money-sucking government program like Artemis (though it is partnering on Artemis). Thus, it can spend its money in buying many different but needed space products from its private sector. And it has more money available for these purposes.

NASA can’t do this as effectively, because a much larger portion of its budget is trapped financing the ineffective SLS rocket and Orion capsule.

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Two Japanese shipping companies are developing floating landing platforms for rockets

9:25 am

Two different Japanese shipping companies are now developing floating ship platforms that rocket companies could use to land their rocket’s first stages.

Japan’s Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) is following compatriot Mitsui OSK Lines in targeting space exploration as a new source of revenues.

NYK has obtained an approval in principle from ClassNK for the conceptual design of an offshore recovery system for reusable rockets, an initiative developed through the Space Strategy Fund at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). NYK now aims to carry out a demonstration test of this new vessel type in 2028 working with multiple partners including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Since JAXA and Mitsubishi own and build Japan’s new H3 rocket, JAXA’s funding here suggests both are considering upgrading the H3 for reusability. It is also possible Mitsubishi is mulling plans to build its own new commercial rocket.

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Two companies to study ways for extending the life of the Gehrels Swift space telescope

9:15 am

NASA yesterday announced that it has awarded two companies, Cambrian Works in Virginia and Katalyst Space Technologies in Arizona, each $150K study contracts for reviewing whether it makes sense to send a robotic servicing mission to Gehrels Swift space telescope to raise its orbit and extend its life.

Since its launch in 2004, NASA’s Swift mission has led the agency’s fleet of space telescopes in investigating changes in the high-energy universe. The spacecraft’s low Earth orbit has been decaying gradually, which happens to most satellites over time. Because of recent increases in the Sun’s activity, however, Swift is experiencing additional atmospheric drag, speeding up its orbital decay. This lowering orbit presents an opportunity for NASA to advance a U.S. industry capability, while potentially extending the science lifetime of the Swift mission. The concept studies will help determine whether extending Swift’s critical scientific capabilities would be more cost-effective than replacing those capabilities with a new observatory.

According to this paper [pdf], the telescope’s orbit will decay before the end of 2029, so speed is of the essence. Why NASA is thus spending time and money on a “study” contract from companies that don’t do orbital servicing or have orbital tugs is very curious. Wouldn’t make more sense to request bids from the many orbital servicing and tug companies that now exist (D-Orbit, Astroscale, Northrop Grumman, Firefly, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, Impulse) to see if any can do the job at a reasonable cost and are willing?

Gehrels Swift has proven to be one of the most valuable and useful high energy space telescopes ever launched. First of all its cost was relatively low. Second, it is designed to quickly observe a gamma ray burst (GRB) location in multiple other wavelengths (optical especially). That ability helped solve the mystery of GRBs, as well as numerous other high energy events. It would be a tragedy to lose it.

It would also be far more expensive to build a replacement.

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Munich Bach Orchestra – Brandenburg Concerto No 2 in F major,3rd movement

6:01 pm

An evening pause: For those old enough, you will recognize this music, as it was the theme music for the William Buckley’s show, Firing Line, from the 60s and 70s.

Hat tip Wayne DeVette.

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SpaceX launches 24 more Kuiper satellites for Amazon

8:35 am

SpaceX this morning successfully placed another 24 Kuiper satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The Falcon 9 first stage was new, completing its first flight by landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The two fairings completed their 5th and 28th flights respectively.

This was SpaceX’s second of three launches for Amazon, which now has 102 satellites in orbit. It needs to get another 1,498 in orbit by July 2026 in order to meet its licence requirements by the FCC. While ULA seems poised to begin regular launches for Amazon, having a contract for 46 launches (having so far completed two in 2025), the contracts for Blue Origin’s New Glenn (27 launches), and ArianeGroup’s Ariane-6 (18 launches) are more uncertain. Neither company has achieved any launches on their contracts, and it is not clear when either company, especially Blue Origin, will ever begin regular launches.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

98 SpaceX (with another Starlink launch scheduled for later today)
43 China
11 Rocket Lab
9 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 98 to 74.

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Toyota extends its partnership with Japanese rocket startup Interstellar

9:39 am

In a deal last week Toyota extended its partnership with the Japanese rocket startup Interstellar Technologies from its earlier announcement in January 2025 that it would invest $44 million in the company.

As part of the new agreement, Toyota will dispatch personnel starting in August 2025 to support Interstellar in a wide range of manufacturing efforts, from the development of ZERO’s first flight unit to broader business commercialization. Additionally, Interstellar became the first startup to join “Toyota Woven City” as an Inventor, leveraging Toyota’s decades of manufacturing expertise and strengths. The development of ZERO will continue to be based on Interstellar’s facilities.

Zero is Interstellar’s proposed smallsat rocket. The company, which was founded in 2005, attempted a suborbital launch in 2018 that failed. Until Toyota’s commitments this year, it had done almost nothing since.

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Starlink now available in Israel

9:20 am

After a year of regulatory paperwork, the Israel government has finally allowed SpaceX to offer Starlink to customers in Israel proper, but not in the West Bank or Gaza.

The company received an operating license from the Communications Ministry last year, following lengthy negotiations and regulatory procedures, but its launch was delayed until now. The restriction on coverage in the West Bank and Gaza is likely due to security concerns over potential use by hostile actors.

Expect the usual leftist anti-Semites to accuse Israel of bigotry for excluding access to Palestinians, but until those Palestinians show some willingness to live with Israel in peace (something they so far show no signs in doing, especially in Gaza), this policy makes perfect sense.

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Endurance capsule splashes down safely, returning four astronauts from ISS

8:56 am

SpaceX’s Endurance Dragon capsule successfully splashed down off the coast of California this morning, returning four astronauts from ISS after a five month mission.

I have embedded the live stream below. As of posting the capsule was about to be lifted from the water and placed in its nest on the recovery ship.

Once again it is important to note that this recovery is being done entirely by a private company and its employees. Once Endurance undocked from ISS NASA had no part to play. It purchased the ride from SpaceX, and SpaceX is providing the service.
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