Satellite News

After a successful fit-check with the launch vehicle adapter and separation test, the Sentinel-5p mission has passed another programme milestone on its way to launch.

Payload integration has begun for Arianespace’s Soyuz mission on 22 April with the flight’s three miniaturised auxiliary satellite passengers now installed on a special platform that enables multiple payloads to be deployed by the workhorse launcher.

The crew of the International Space Station (ISS) has successfully docked the Dragon cargo spaceship, NASA said on Sunday, 10 April. The Falcon 9’s first stage, which successfully returned to the ground after the launch, will now be thoroughly tested.

Mission operations engineers have successfully recovered the Kepler spacecraft from Emergency Mode (EM). On Sunday morning, the spacecraft reached a stable state with the communication antenna pointed toward Earth, enabling telemetry and historical event data to be downloaded to the ground. The spacecraft is operating in its lowest fuel-burn mode.

Twenty years ago, the Proton K Launch Vehicle became the first Russian rocket to enter the global commercial launch services market.