India’s Aditya-L1 solar observatory has reached its destination orbit around Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1 around 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. Aditya-L1 entered orbit around Sun-Earth L1 at around 5:30 a.m. Eastern (1230 UTC) Jan. 6, following a burn by the spacecraft’s engines, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced via X/Twitter. The spacecraft is the country’s first dedicated mission to study the Sun. Its halo orbit at L1 will allow it to continuously study solar phenomena. Science objectives include studying coronal heating, solar wind acceleration, Coronal Mass Ejections, solar atmospheric dynamics and temperature anisotropy. The nominal lifespan of the spacecraft is five years, but this could be extended, according to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Aditya-L1 launched on Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C57) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota, Sept. 2 last year. The launch came days after India became the fourth country to land on the moon with the robotic Chandrayaan-3 lander. Aditya-L1 performed four Earth-bound orbital maneuvers before entering a transfer orbit for L1. Its arrival came 126 days later. The 1,480-kilogram spacecraft is equipped with seven scientific instruments developed indigenously for solar research.
Launch of the Aditya-L1 solar observatory on a PSLV from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sept. 2, 2023. Credit: ISRO
Positioned approximately 1% of the Sun-Earth distance within the orbit of our planet, its payload includes an ultraviolet imaging telescope, soft and hard X-ray spectrometers, and a coronagraph for solar observations. Additionally, it carries a pair of particle analyzers and a magnetometer for direct in-situ measurements.
For comparison, the James Webb Space Telescope operates at Sun-Earth L-2 Lagrange point, another gravitationally stable point, 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth but in the direction opposite to the Sun.
ISRO released full-disk images of the Sun in ultra-violet from the spacecraft’s SUIT payload in December.
Meanwhile in low Earth orbit, the upper stage of the PSLV rocket which launched India’s XPoSat X-ray observatory Jan. 1 (UTC), has hosted a series of experiments. Attached to the upper stage is a payload called PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM) 3.
Experiments included testing tantalum-based coatings, fuel cells, small thrusters, interplanetary dust measurements and more. The experiments were arranged by ISRO and the National Space Promotion Authorization Center (IN-SPACe), a government agency set up to regulate and authorize commercial space activities in India.
POEM-3 is part of a wider initiative to spur commercial space development. India last year initiated reforms that officials say can help the country become a global space hub.
Two payloads on POEM-3 developed by private firm Bellatrix Aerospace are now space qualified after meeting mission success criteria. These are RUDRA 0.3, a green monopropellant thruster, and ARKA-200, a heater less hollow cathode for Hall thrusters. Bellatrix says it is now able to supply propulsion systems globally.
India launched an astronomy satellite to start a year that will feature key tests for its human spaceflight program and a potential joint crewed mission with NASA. A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) lifted off at 10:40 p.m. Eastern Dec. 31 (9:10 a.m. local Jan. 1) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. It deployed its primary payload, the XPoSat spacecraft, into a 650-kilometer orbit about 22 minutes later. The 469-kilogram satellite carries two instruments to conduct X-ray polarimetry measurements. Astronomers plan to use the data collected by XPoSat to study neutron stars, black holes and supernovae. After deploying XPoSat, the PSLV’s fourth stage maneuvered to a 350-kilometer orbit. Attached to the upper stage is a payload called PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM) 3. It carries 10 experiments, such as fuel cells and thrusters, from ISRO, universities and companies expected to operate for about a month. Lowering POEM-3 to 350 kilometers is intended to mitigate debris by reducing the orbital lifetime of the upper stage. “As a responsible space agency, we decided to bring the fourth stage to a lower orbit so that the life of the stage in the orbit is much less, so we don’t create debris in that process,” said S Somanath, chairman of ISRO, in remarks after the launch. The launch was the first of 2024, based on Universal Time. It comes after a record-setting 2023 with about 220 orbital launch attempts worldwide. India conducted seven of those launches using the PSLV, Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) and Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, all of which were successful.
ISRO expects to roughly double that launch rate in 2024, with 12 to 14 launches planned for the year. Among them will be the GSLV launch of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) Earth science mission, a joint effort of the two space agencies. That mission is slated for launch on March 30, NASA officials said at a session of the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December.
The highlight of 2024 for ISRO, though, will be a series of test flights for its Gaganyaan human spaceflight program. The agency conducted the first such test in October, launching an uncrewed capsule on a suborbital flight to test its launch abort system.
“2024 is going to be the year of Gaganyaan,” Somanath said after the launch, starting with additional abort tests. “This year we are expecting two more such test flights of the test vehicle, followed by the unmanned mission.” That would be an orbital test of the Gaganyaan spacecraft without a crew on board.
That schedule would mean the first crewed Gaganyaan flight would take place no earlier than 2025. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he announced the program in August 2018, set a goal for the first launch to take place in 2022 to mark the 75th anniversary of India’s independence.
The next Indian astronaut to go to space, though, may do so on an American spacecraft. As part of a June 2023 summit meeting between Modi and President Joe Biden, the countries announced they would develop a “strategic framework for human spaceflight cooperation” by the end of the year. That would include, according to a joint statement, training of Indian astronauts at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and “a goal of launching a joint effort to the International Space Station in 2024.”
Neither government has released additional details about those plans, including that strategic framework, since then. A Nov. 9 fact sheet by the U.S. State Department on relations between the United States and India reiterated the goal of a joint mission to the ISS in 2024 and training of Indian astronauts at JSC.
For the second time the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) will explore Venus. On board the Indian Venus mission Shukrayaan-1, IRF's satellite instrument Venusian Neutrals Analyzer (VNA) will study how the charged particles from the Sun interact with the atmosphere and exosphere of the planet. Between 2006-2014 IRF's instrument ASPERA-4 (Analyzes of Space Plasma and EneRgetic Atoms) studied Venus on board the European spacecraft Venus Express. The satellite instrument measured the plasma properties around Venus in detail, as well as neutral atoms that escape into space from the atmosphere. ASPERA-4 consisted of four different sensors to analyze energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) and plasma particles. By analyzing ENAs, the instrument contributes to our knowledge of the interaction between the charged particles from the sun (solar wind) and the atmosphere of Venus. Associate Professor Yoshifumi Futaana, IRF, is the Principal Investigator responsible for both ASPERA-4 and now the VNA instrument that will explore the brightest planet in the sky. "Venus is the twin of our Earth, but these planets are very different. The atmosphere is dense and hot, but it is waterless. Water existed 4 billion years ago when Venus was formed, but it has been lost, probably to space. ASPERA-4 proved that water on Venus is escaping to space with energy obtained from the solar wind. Our results also provide essential information to help us understand exoplanets around other stars, planets which we cannot explore with instruments in place around them," says Yoshifumi Futaana.
IRF's satellite instrument on Shukrayaan-1 will be part of a larger Indian instrument package and will be the ninth generation of IRF's series of miniatured ion and ENA instruments. The first generation was named SARA (Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer) and was launched on board the successful Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 that explored the Moon in 2008-2009.
SARA consisted of two sensors. One was a detector for energetic neutral atoms and the other was an instrument to measure the flow of ions in the solar wind. The instrument studied how the plasma around the Moon interacts with the moon where the surface is not protected by an atmosphere or a magnetic field.
For the first time ever, SARA could investigate energetic atoms that are knocked from the lunar surface when they are hit by the solar wind.
The SARA experiment was the first collaborative project between IRF and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The new Venus mission means that the collaboration between IRF and ISRO continues.
IRF's director Professor Stas Barabash was the Swedish Principal Investigator of the SARA experiment, and is the lead Co-Investigator of the VNA instrument.
"The SARA experiment was truly an exciting mission which revealed a number of unknown secrets about how the Moon interacts with space. Collaboration with the Indian team was the key of this successful experiment. The next target of our joint investigation is Venus in order to understand why the Earth Earth and Venus, which began as twins, evolved so differently," says Stas Barabash.
The Indian Space Research Organization chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan said the country will move ahead with a new space mission to the moon despite a failed attempt in 2019. The Chandrayaan-3 space mission, set to take place no later than early 2021, will include an upgraded space vehicle with a new propulsion module, moon lander and rover, Sivan said on Wednesday. India will be trying to become the fourth country to make a "soft landing" on the moon, behind the United States, the former Soviet Union and China. The unmanned lunar landing is part of India's bigger goal of launching its own astronauts into space by 2022. India's Minister of State Jitendra Singh said India gathered a great deal of information from the Chandrayaan-2 mission that will help it in the space agency's upcoming mission. "Yes, the lander and rover mission will most likely happen in 2020," Singh said. "However, as I have said before, the Chandrayaan-2 mission cannot be called a failure as we have learned a lot from it. "There is no country in the world that has landed on its first attempt. The U.S. took several attempts. But we will not need so many attempts." India already has scored a number of firsts for Asian nations. It became the first to reach Mars in 2014 when it placed one of its probes in orbit around Earth's neighbor. India then put a record of 104 satellites in space on one mission.
The country then touted its space defense capabilities when it announced in 2019 that it shot down one of its own satellites as a test of the anti-satellite protocol.
New Delhi and Moscow are negotiating the organisation of the India-based production of semi-cryogenic rocket engines using Russian technology for the South Asian country's space programme, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan said in an interview. "Russia is offering its semi-cryogenic rocket engine technology to India under the 'Make-in-India' programme. The rocket engines could be made in India and used in our rockets", Sivan told the news agency IANS. According to the official, this issue is currently under discussion, and no specific agreements have been reached yet. "What has been finalised is the agreement to train Indian cosmonauts by Russia for our human space mission Gaganyaan", the head of the Indian space agency added. The media earlier repeatedly reported about India's interest in Russian rocket engines without specifying either the type or model of the engine. Last week, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said that Russia might sell RD-180 engines to India. Russia's RD-180 engines are now exported to the United States. India plans to send its first crewed mission, set to include three astronauts, into space by 2022, to mark the 75th anniversary of its independence, with Russia set to assist it. Indian Ambassador to Russia Bala Venkatesh Varma earlier told Sputnik that Russia and India would start cooperating on the matter as early as 2019.
India's second Moon Mission, Chandrayaan-2 completed its first orbit manoeuver successfully. The Earthbound manoeuvers of the spacecraft will be executed starting Thursday, and it is scheduled to reach the Moon by 20th August 2019. The second orbit manoeuver is planned for 26th July. India's Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched its ambitious deep space mission on Monday (22nd July) from its spaceport at Sriharikota on the eastern shore in Andhra Pradesh. Billed as one of the most challenging missions ever according to ISRO Chief K. Sivan, the launch was initially scheduled for 15th July 2019 but had to be rescheduled due to a technical snag. In a swift operation, the ISRO scientists normalized the spacecraft and launcher in 24 hours and corrected the snag in the next 36 hours, said Sivan after the launch. ISRO will carry out 15 crucial manoeuvres in the next six weeks and finally bring the Chandrayaan-2 around the Moon for a soft landing near its the South Pole. Chandrayaan-2 - an orbiter, lander and rover, is scheduled to land on the Moon on the 48th day or 7th September 2019, covering a distance of about 384,000 Km. It carries 14 payloads to carry out experiments.The success of the mission will take India to the "Big Boy Space Club" as so far only the US, Russia and China have accomplished this feat. It will be the first space mission to attempt to soft-land the lander -Vikram and rover Pragyan in a high plain between two craters at a latitude of about 70 degrees south.
The lunar South Pole is especially interesting because the area there remains in the shadows and is much larger than its the North Pole. There is the possibility of the presence of water, and craters in the cold traps could contain a fossil record of the early Solar System. India's first Lunar Mission in 2008 had identified traces of water on the Moon.
The 3,850 kg spacecraft was fired on a massive rocket, GSLV Mark III, which had a 100 per cent success rate, with two launches and one sub-orbital flight. It is India's most powerful launcher to date and is entirely designed and fabricated in the country.
Chandrayaan-2 is the cheapest among Moon Missions so far. Its total cost is $142 million less than half the budget of the recently released Hollywood movie Avengers: Endgame.
India will make a new bid to launch a landmark mission to the Moon on Monday, a week after aborting lift-off at the last minute because of a fuel leak, officials said. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said it had rescheduled the launch of Chandrayaan-2, or Moon Chariot-2, for 2:43 pm (0913 GMT) on Monday. India is aiming to become just the fourth nation after Russia, the United States and China to land a spacecraft on the Moon. Indian space chiefs called off the planned launch of the rocket 56 minutes before blast-off on Monday morning because of what ISRO called a "technical snag". Media reports quoted ISRO scientists saying a helium fuel leak had been detected. India has spent about $140 million on preparations for the project, which is one of the cheapest among international space powers. By comparison, the United States spent about $25 billion -- the equivalent of more than $100 billion in current prices -- on 15 Apollo missions in the 1960s and 70s. The rocket will launch from a space centre in Sriharikota, an island off the coast of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. It will carry an orbiter, lander and a rover which has been almost entirely designed and made in India. The orbiter is meant to keep circling the Moon for about one year, taking pictures of the surface and sending back information on the atmosphere. A lander named Vikram will take the rover to the surface near the lunar South Pole.
India's first lunar mission in 2008 -- Chandrayaan-1 -- did not land on the Moon, but carried out a search for water using radar.
A soft landing on the Moon would be a huge leap forward in India's space programme, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi determined to launch a manned mission into space by 2022.
India also has ambitions to land a probe on Mars. In 2014, India became only the fourth nation to put a satellite into orbit around the Red Planet.
India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle has successfully launched EMISAT and 28 international customer satellites into their designated orbits. The PSLV-C45 mission lifted off at 09:27 Hrs (IST) on April 01, 2019 from the second launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota in its 47th flight. This flight marked the first mission of PSLV-QL, a new variant of PSLV with four strap-on motors. About 17 minutes and 12 seconds after lift-off, EMISAT was successfully injected into intended sun-synchronous polar orbit of 748 km height. After the separation of EMISAT, the vehicle's fourth stage engines were restarted twice to place the 28 international customer satellites precisely into a sun-synchronous orbit of 504 km height. The last customer satellite was placed in its designated orbit 1 hour and 55 minutes after lift-off. About 3 hours after lift-off, the fourth stage (PS4) of the vehicle was moved to a lower circular orbit of 485 km after two restarts to establish it as an orbital platform for carrying out experiments with its three payloads. The PS4 payloads are Automatic Identification System from ISRO, Automatic Packet Repeating System from AMSAT, India and Advanced Retarding Potential Analyzer for ionospheric studies from Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology.
Spaceflight Prepares to Send 21 Rideshare Satellites Aboard PSLV C45
Seattle WA (SPX) Mar 26 - Spaceflight, the leading satellite rideshare and mission management provider, reports it will launch 21 spacecraft on a rideshare mission from India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) at India's Satish Dhawan Space Center.
The launch is scheduled for Mon., April 1, 2019 Indian Standard Time (Sun., March 31 PDT). Payloads aboard the mission include the Astrocast-02 3U cubesat from Switzerland-based Astrocast and Flock 4a, 20 next-generation Dove satellites from Planet.
This launch represents Spaceflight's eighth launch on a PSLV and with the completion of this mission, the company will have sent 95 spacecraft to orbit aboard PSLVs.
"PSLV missions continue to offer a reliable and proven launch option for our customers," said Curt Blake, CEO of Spaceflight.
"By working with Antrix/ISRO and a wide range of vehicle providers, we are uniquely positioned to offer the greatest number of launch options to our customers. Having greater flexibility in launches can minimize the negative impacts of delays which is especially valuable for organizations launching multiple spacecraft."
Spaceflight successfully launched the first test satellite of Astrocast's IoT Nanosatellite Network on its historic SSO-A dedicated rideshare mission in December 2018.
Astrocast's network of 64 cubesats will securely extend the reach of two-way communications to the 90 percent of the globe currently not covered by cellular networks. Using L-Band frequencies, Astrocast's small form factor modules, miniaturized antennas, and optimized data protocol make it the most advanced nanosatellite on the market today.
"Reliable access to space is critical to Astrocast's mission," said Fabien Jordan, CEO of Astrocast. "With Spaceflight, we were able to successfully deploy our first satellite and are looking forward to the PSLV launch as well as other missions in the near future."
In what is Planet's first launch of 2019, Flock 4a will join its current constellation of more than 100 Doves, replenishing the on-orbit fleet and providing upgrades to its imaging chain to improve image sharpness, radiometric consistency and spectral precision.
This mission marks Spaceflight's second launch of 2019 and its first PSLV mission of the year following the successful launches of GTO-1, which deployed the first commercial lunar lander in February aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, and SSO-A, the company's historic dedicated rideshare mission, which launched 64 unique smallsats in December 2018.
To date, the company has negotiated the launch of 224 satellites and has plans for approximately 10 missions in 2019 launching nearly 100 payloads across a wide variety of launch vehicles, include the Falcon 9, Antares, Electron, Vega, Soyuz, and LauncherOne.
Indian scientists will use robots and 3D printers to build igloo-like structures using lunar soil and other suitable materials. Indian space scientists have already finalized five designs for such lunar habitats, according to a central minister. New Delhi (Sputnik) — In what could be India's biggest achievement in space exploration, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is experimenting with potential structures for lunar habitation, the Indian space minister informed the nation's parliament on Wednesday. "ISRO along with academic institutions are performing experiments on potential structures for lunar habitation," Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, responsible for the Department of Space, informed the lower house of the parliament. Suman Balka, a member of the house, had asked him whether the ISRO had started working on building igloo-like habitats on the lunar surface for potential future missions and whether it was is planning to use the Moon as an outpost, like missions in Antarctica.
"Various options are being studied about the requirements and complexities of habitats. The study is more towards futuristic developments," Singh responded.
The ISRO is planning to launch the Chandrayaan-II (Moon Mission-II) next month. This mission involves many complex elements like a soft landing, rover separation, and movement on the lunar surface, in addition to the operations of the Orbiter. The rover has been designed in such a way that it will have the power to spend a lunar day or 14 Earth days on the moon's surface and walk up to 150-200 meters. The rover will then send data and images of the lunar surface back to the Earth through the orbiter.
Several new technology elements have been developed indigenously and tests are being carried out for verification.
"Orbiter has completed the thermo-vacuum test, which is one of the major milestones. Lander sensors and actuators are tested on the ground to validate the performance and the results are satisfactory. The rover flight model is being assembled. Payloads are in various stages of delivery for spacecraft integration," Minister Jitendra Singh had said on 14 March when asked about the progress of the mission in Parliament.
ISRO had launched its first moon mission, Chandrayaan-I, in October 2008. Though the mission was expected to last for two years, it only lasted for roughly 10 months after the orbiter stopped communicating with the station in August 2009.
India will launch 31 satellites, including the earth observation spacecraft Cartosat on January 10, from its spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, an official said on Saturday. "We have tentatively scheduled the rocket launch at 9.30 a.m. to carry Cartosat and other satellites, including 28 from the US and five other countries in a single mission," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Director Devi Prasad Karnik told IANS here. The first space mission in 2018 onboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C40) comes four months after a similar rocket failed to deliver the country's eighth navigation satellite in the earth's lower orbit on August 31. "The sixth Cartosat in the second series and other satellites are integrated with the rocket at the spaceport. The mission launch board will decide the rocket's lift-off time for the reverse countdown two days ahead," said Karnik. The mission's payload will also include one each nano and micro satellite from India, besides Cartosat-2.
As an observational satellite, Cartosat will beam high-quality images for cartographic, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation and utility management like road network monitoring.
The previous two satellites in the Cartosat-2 series were launched on June 23 and February 15, from the spaceport on the east coast, about 90km up Chennai.
As a follow-on mission, Cartosat will also relay high resolution scene specific spot imageries with data from its panchromatic and multi-spectral cameras operating in time delay integration mode.
The space scientists are taking special measures to ensure the 44.4 metre rocket will sling the 720kg Cartosat and other satellites one-after-one into their intended orbits.
"The August 31 mission suffered a setback when the 320-tonne workhorse launcher (PSLV-C39) did not separate the heat shield to deliver the spare satellite in the Indian Remote Navigation Satellite Series (IRNSS-H) from its cone-shaped top-end," recalled another official.
To make up for the lost time when launches were held up for four months pending inquiry into the August 31 mission failure, the space agency plans to have at least one launch a month in 2018.
"We have lined up five-six launches in the first half of next year, including two for deploying GSAT-6A and GSAT-29 advanced communication satellites in the geo-synchronous orbit (36,000km above earth)," asserted the official.
The space agency will also launch its second lunar mission (Chandrayaan-2) to the moon, with an orbiter, lander and rover for the first time.
The 3,290 kg Chandrayaan-2 will orbit around the moon and study its lunar conditions to collect data on its topography, mineralogy, exosphere and the "presence" of water ice and hydroxyl. On reaching the 100 km lunar orbit, the lander with the six-wheeled rover will separate from the spacecraft and descend slowly to soft land on the lunar surface at a designated spot.
"The rover will move around the landing site in semi-autonomous mode as per the ground commands while its instruments will observe the lunar surface and transmit the data for analysis of its soil," added the official.
Spaceflight, a satellite rideshare and mission management provider, has announced it will be launching 11 spacecraft in early January from India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Spacecraft include Finland's ICEYE-X1 SAR microsatellite, Planetary Resources' Arkyd-6 6U asteroid prospecting demonstration cubesat, four Spire Global Lemur-2 cubesats, Astro Digital's Landmapper-BC3, AMSAT's Fox-1D cubesat, and others. Spaceflight performed the cubesat integration at its Seattle Integration Facility and is in the process of shipping the spacecraft to India for the PSLV-C40 mission. The PSLV rocket is scheduled to lift off from India's Satish Dhawan Space Center in early January 2018 with the Cartosat-2ER navigation satellite, in addition to Spaceflight's rideshare customers. "PSLV-C40 is a perfect example of how our flexible, full-service rideshare model is enabling new commercial space businesses to exist while expanding into new markets," said Curt Blake, president of Spaceflight. "This mission brings new customers from outside the industry into space while continuing partnerships with existing customers for their ongoing satellite constellations." One first-time customer on the mission is Finland's ICEYE with the country's first commercial satellite, ICEYE-X1. ICEYE developed its own synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) sensor technologies suitable for satellites under 100kg in weight, making it one of the bigger payloads on the PSLV-C40 mission.
This is ICEYE's first proof-of-concept microsatellite mission with a SAR sensor as its payload and also the world's first SAR satellite in this size, enabling radar imaging of the Earth through clouds and even in total darkness. Potential use-cases for the data are monitoring sea ice movements or marine oil spills, and prevention of illegal fishing.
"Working together with Spaceflight to schedule and make this launch a reality has been an outstanding experience for ICEYE, and it has given us the necessary opportunities for scaling up operations for our constellation of micro-SAR satellites as planned," said Rafal Modrzewski, CEO and co-founder at ICEYE.
Spaceflight offers customers the most options for getting to space, working with nearly every global launch vehicle provider, including the Falcon 9, PSLV, Antares, Cygnus, Electron, Soyuz and others.
Much like buying an airline ticket that is valid on multiple airlines, Spaceflight can ensure organizations have flexibility to move vehicles if changes or delays occur. Additionally, the smallsat rideshare service model helps organizations reach a desired orbit at a much lower cost than buying their own launch vehicle.
Spaceflight has negotiated the launch of more than 120 satellites on behalf of its customers and has contracts to deploy nearly 200 more through 2018. The company plans to coordinate and deploy its largest launch to date in 2018 with its first dedicated rideshare mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9.
