Satellite News

Rocket: Atlas V; Payload: NROL-55, 13 CubeSats; Date: 8 October 2015, 1249 UTC; Launch site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA. It was ULA’s 10th launch in 2015 and the 101st successful launch since the company was formed in December 2006.

According to a Roscosmos announcement, the launch of a Proton-M launch vehicle with a Turkish satellite Turksat-4B is scheduled for 16 October 2015. The launch will be performed from the Baikonur launch site.

The Arabsat-6B and GSAT-15 telecommunications satellites are now in French Guiana – setting the stage for Arianespace’s next heavy-lift mission, which is scheduled for an early November lift-off.

In anticipation of a second phase of flight testing, Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Space Systems has announced significant updates to two Dream Chaser spacecraft currently in development. The spacecraft are the atmospheric engineering test article (ETA) and the advanced composite orbital vehicle, which when tested will undergo a suborbital and orbital flight regimen, respectively.

Manufacturing and assembly of the spacecraft structure that will take NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was successfully completed at Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Redondo Beach facility.