Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Spaceflight Teams With Japanese Company For Satellite Launch

Seattle-based Spaceflight, which operates a service to help get satellites into space, said today that it has entered into a cooperative launch service agreement with the Japan Manned Space Systems Corporation (JAMSS). Spaceflight said it will launch eight small satellites from the upcoming Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Astro-H mission. Spaceflight helps arrange for transportation of satellite payloads into space--in this case, eight different 3U CubeSats--on upcoming space missions. CubeSats are a very standardized satellite payload--which have a volume of exactly one liter in a 10cm cube, with a very specific weight and mass. Those standard satellite payloads are being used to provide a standard way to deliver satellites into space, reducing the costs and complexity of satellite launches. Spaceflight also helps launch similar, standard NanoSats and MicroSat payloads into space. The Astro-H mission is expected launch sometime between April 2015 and March 2016. Spaceflight says it has so far launched 76 satellites into space.