They were just in the news this week: announcements of launches that followed up one after another. Space X is about to launch not one but two rockets, just a week after it took four astronauts to the International Space Station. SpaceX will send a NASA Earth Observation satellite from California and another batch (the 16th) of Starlink satellites from Florida on the same day, which was supposed to happen yesterday (Saturday 21). The launches were delayed until today, Sunday 22 November, and you can watch them here.
For a likely successful mission, there is one that went wrong, to remind everybody how challenging the space sector remains even for established players. European Vega rocket —one of ArianeSpace’s jewels– suffered major launch failure a few days ago, with the loss of satellites (from Spain and France) it was supposed to put into orbit.
For more about the likely reasons for the failure and more about what’s going on with Vega, have a look here.