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Amazon on December 1, 2023 announced it has signed a three-launch contract with SpaceX to place its Kuiper satellites into orbit, supplementing the launch contracts it presently has with ULA, Arianespace, and Blue Origin. From the Amazon press release: ""SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage launch vehicle designed for the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond, and it has completed more than 270 successful launches to date. Project Kuiper has contracted three Falcon 9 launches, and these missions are targeted to lift off beginning in mid-2025."" In 2022 Amazon had signed contracts...

The $10 billion Webb — considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope — was supposed to soar Saturday, but was jolted by a clamp during launch preparations, resulting in a four-day delay. Then a bad communication link on the rocket had to be fixed, postponing the launch another two days. U.S. and European space officials signed off Friday on the launch date, following one last round of testing. Nelson expects a smaller crowd at the launch site because of the holidays. Liftoff is scheduled for 7:20 a.m. EST.

Arianespace will launch a new Earth observation satellite for Airbus Monday night (Aug. 16), along with four other tiny satellites and you can watch the liftoff live online. An Arianespace Vega rocket, designated VV19, will launch the Pléiades Neo 4 satellites and a quartet of cubesats from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana in South America at 9:47 p.m. EDT (0147 Aug. 17 GMT). You can watch the launch live on this page on Space.com, courtesy of Arianespace, or directly via the company's YouTube. The webcast should begin about 20 minutes before liftoff. The rocket will carry Pléiades...

An Arianespace Vega rocket carrying two satellites failed to reach orbit yesterday after experiencing a catastrophic failure eight minutes into the launch. Officials are attributing the loss of the rocket to a “series of human errors.” Vega Flight VV17 started off well, with the 98-foot-tall (30-meter) rocket departing the Guiana Space Center at 8:52 p.m. ET. The first three stages, all powered by solid-fuel, did their job, propelling the vehicle and its cargo over the Atlantic ocean toward space. It was when the liquid-fueled upper stage kicked in that things went sideways. According to satellite launch company Arianespace, the trouble...

TOKYO (Reuters) - A European-Japanese spacecraft set off on a treacherous seven-year journey to Mercury to probe the solar system’s smallest and least-explored planet. The BepiColombo mission, only the third ever to visit Mercury, blasted off from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 rocket at 10:45 p.m. local time on Friday (0145 GMT on Saturday), according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). “Launching BepiColombo is a huge milestone for ESA (the European Space Agency) and JAXA, and there will be many great successes to come,” ESA Director General Jan Woerner said in a statement. “Beyond completing...

"An Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket will launch a new mission to Mercury tonight, to send a set of spacecraft to the innermost planet! The joint mission by the European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will lift off at 9:45 p.m. EDT (0145 GMT) from a pad at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. You can watch the launch live here, beginning at 9:15 p.m. EDT (0115 GMT), courtesy of ESA."

The liftoff of a European satellite to measure global wind fields has been delayed 24 hours to Wednesday in hopes of a better weather forecast at the Vega rocket’s launch base in French Guiana, officials announced Monday. The European Space Agency’s Aeolus satellite is ready for launch aboard a solid-fueled Vega rocket, the smallest booster in Arianespace’s fleet, to begin a three-year science mission to monitor wind speeds in Earth’s atmosphere. Officials from Arianespace, ESA and CNES — the French space agency — convened Monday for a launch readiness review. Managers confirmed the readiness of the four-stage Vega launcher and...

An Arianespace launch is scheduled for 7:25 a.m. EDT (1125 GMT), and a SpaceX launch is scheduled for 7:39 a.m. EDT (1139 GMT), according to Spaceflight Now. You can watch both launches here on Space.com, courtesy of Arianespace and SpaceX. The Arianespace launch, using an Ariane 5 rocket, will be the company's fourth of the year and will carry four Galileo satellites for Europe, according to a company statement. The Galileo satellites provide global-positioning services across Europe, and Wednesday's launch should complete the network. The Arianespace launch will take place at Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. The SpaceX...

Four satellites for O3b Networks, a company which provides broadband connectivity to the developing world, are ready for launch Thursday on top of a Russian Soyuz rocket from the European-run spaceport in French Guiana. Liftoff is set for 1855:56 GMT (2:55:56 p.m. EDT). Rocket: Soyuz 2-1b Payload: O3b F2 Date: July 10, 2014 Time: 1855:56 GMT (2:55:56 p.m. EDT) Launch Site: ELS, Guiana Space Center, Sinnamary, French Guiana Live launch coverage at the link! ArianeSpace Launch Press Kit

Russia To Dump Aussie Launch Center In Favor Of Kourou Deal Sydney - Jun 30, 2002 After decades of neglect and disinterest by the Australia government, private industry attempts to relaunch Australia's space industry look like coming to naught. This week's edition of the industry newspaper Space News reports that the Russian operators of the Soyuz rocket will pull out of a joint venture with Asia Pacific Space Center to work instead with ArianeSpace and its South American spaceport at Kourou in French Guiana. The development is not surprising as ArianeSpace with the support of the European Space Agency...