Boeing and Orbital Sciences Corp. have finished building three satellites that will be used to support police, military and emergency services in Mexico as part of the Mexsat project, the Orange County Register reported Monday. William D’Urso writes Boeing has completed two 702HP geomobile satellites named Centenario and Morelos-3, while subcontractor Orbital made one GEOStar-2 satellite named Bicentenario for […] More

Orbital Sciences Chairman, President and CEO David Thompson said the company plans to remain true to its mission of lowering costs to access outer space after completing its estimated $5 billion merger with ATK, the Washington Post reported Monday. “From a strategic standpoint, this merger will create a much larger and more capable but still highly innovative, agile […] More

ATK‘s board of directors has approved a plan to spinoff its sporting group into an independent, publicly-traded company as part of an agreement to merge ATK’s aerospace and defense business groups with Orbital Sciences. Mark DeYoung, president and CEO of Arlington, Va.-based ATK, will serve as chairman and CEO of the commercial ammunition and sporting […] More

Orbital Sciences has begun to integrate payloads for Iridium Communications‘ NEXT satellite constellation at an Orbital-run facility in Gilbert, Az. Orbital is responsible for assembling and testing NEXT low-earth-orbit satellites under an agreement signed with Thales Alenia Space, the project’s prime contractor, Orbital said Thursday. Under that contract, Orbital will deliver 66 satellite platforms, nine […] More

Orbital Sciences Corp. is preparing to launch a commercial communications satellite aboard Arianespace’s Ariane 5 ECA rocket on Friday, as the company expects to deliver Ku-band  satellite connectivity to South America. The Amazonas 4A geosynchronous Earth orbit spacecraft was built and tested at the company’s production facility in Dulles, Va., under a contract with Spain’s Hispasat, Orbital said Thursday. “I want to thank Hispasat […] More

Orbital Sciences has unveiled a new satellite platform the company built to carry up to 1,763 pounds of communications payload and support up to 8 kilowatts of electrical payload power. The GEOStar-3 satcom infrastructure is designed for commercial fixed satellite services, direct broadcasting and high-throughput coverage applications, Orbital said Monday. Christopher Richmond, senior vice president […] More

An Orbital Sciences-built unmanned spacecraft carrying a 2,780-pound cargo load docked with the International Space Station at 6:08 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday. Astronauts Michael Hopkins and Koichi Wakata worked together to bring the Cygnus into the ISS’ Harmony module and the Expedition 38 crew is scheduled to unload supplies from the capsule Monday, NASA said […] More

NASA TV will show a live broadcast of an Orbital Sciences-built spacecraft’s launch on Tuesday as the vehicle starts a resupply mission to the International Space Station. The Cygnus cargo shuttle is scheduled to liftoff at 1:55 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday from the NASA flight range on Wallops Island, Va.  Tuesday and enter space onboard an Antares […] More

Timothy Rumford, formerly an operating unit director within Northrop Grumman‘s tactical space systems division, has been appointed vice president of operations at Leesburg, Virginia-based aerospace technical services provider Optimum Technologies. Rumford comes to OpTech with three decades of aerospace industry experience across business, program management and engineering areas, the company said Monday. In his previous […] More

Peter Schumacher, a partner at private equity firm AE Industrial Partners, has been appointed to serve as CEO of Firefly Aerospace on an interim basis. He replaces Tom Markusic, who has transitioned from the chief executive role to full-time member of the board of directors and chief technical adviser at Firefly, the company said Wednesday. […] More

Executive Mosaic is thrilled to introduce Mike Kahn, CEO of CAES, as a 2021 Wash100 Award recipient for implementing new initiatives to renew the company’s focus on providing mission critical electronics that support the aerospace and defense sectors. This represents the second-time that Kahn has been selected for a Wash100 Award.

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Edward Morris, former senior director for launch system programs at Stratolaunch Systems, has joined Decisive Analytics to serve as vice president for commercial space.

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