Astrium and SpaceX announce launch deal

SSTL’s owner Astrium and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) have announced a contract which will see an Earth observation satellite designed by Astrium or SSTL launched by Falcon 1e, a SpaceX launch vehicle.

Falcon 1

The Falcon 1e is an ‘enhanced’ version of the Falcon 1 launch vehicle. Falcon 1e has been designed completely by SpaceX and benefits from upgraded propulsion, structures and avionics systems, allowing for more reliability. The original Falcon 1 was launched almost a year ago on September 28th 2008.

SSTL and Astrium provide a range of innovative, cutting edge Earth Observation satellite products. Through this partnership, they can offer customers a turnkey solution, with in-orbit delivery of a low Earth orbit satellite system.

Both parties have told of their joy at the partnership:

SpaceX's Falcon 1e launch vehicle was designed to provide the highest level of reliability as well as the lowest dedicated mission price of any orbital launch system

said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX.

SpaceX is pleased to be the launch services provider for this mission.

Evert Dudok, the CEO of Astrium Satellites stated

This Falcon 1e contract allows Astrium to provide a competitive solution for in-orbit delivery of an Earth observation satellite in low Earth orbit. This deal will ultimately benefit customers seeking innovative and low-cost solutions for valuable Earth observation programs.

You can watch the first successful Falcon-1 launch in October on Space Blog.

This entry was posted by Robin Wolstenholme on Thursday, September 10. 2009 at 16:56. and is filed under In the news. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own blog. All new comments are subject to moderation before being displayed.

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