Satellite News

The Russian Defense Ministry has decided to stop using the Rokot launcher from 2016 because of its reliance on imported parts and will switch to the Soyuz and Angara carriers, Aerospace Defense Forces commander Lt. Gen. Alexander Golovko said.

Preparations continue to move ahead for Arianespace’s Ariane 5 Flight VA218, as the Optus 10 spacecraft has undergone its fit-check and fuelling for a dual-passenger mission targeted for 11 September from French Guiana.

Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are wrapping up acoustic testing on a 5-percent scale model of NASA’s Space Launch System. The 28 August test, the 34th in the series, will help NASA engineers understand how loud the SLS vehicle will be during lift-off.

In the context of the Initial Joint Polar System it shares with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), EUMETSAT has entered into a Space Situational Awareness data-sharing agreement with the U.S. Strategic Command to protect its satellites against collision with space debris.

Airbus Defence and Space announced that the Zephyr 7 High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) has just completed its most demanding mission to date and thus set a new benchmark in persistent, year-round operations for this class of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS).

Inmarsat announced that it has received payment of a Phase 2 quarterly payment from LightSquared. This payment was received within the 60 day contractual cure period triggered by a notice of default issued to LightSquared on 2 July 2014.

Operations continue smoothly for the Galileo spacecraft recently launched into wrong orbit. Both satellites now have both sets of their solar arrays fully deployed and generating power. Meanwhile, Russian newspaper Izvestia reported that the failure was likely caused by software errors in the Fregat upper-stage.

Russia’s space defence force started tests of the newest heavy-class Angara A5 rocket.