Satellite News

Rocket: Chang Zheng 3B; Payload: Fengyun 4A; Date: 10 December 2016, 1611 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. The Fengyun-4 satellite, the first of China’s second-generation weather satellites in geostationary orbit to have been launched, is also the country’s first quantitative remote-sensing satellite in high orbit.

The launch of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying EchoStar XIX (aka Jupiter-2) mission has been postponed to 18 December.

The launch of a Pegasus XL rocket from Orbital ATK’s L-1011 aircraft was cancelled after a hydraulic system was not meeting its prescribed pressures, indicating a problem with a pump.

Thales Alenia Space announced that its satellite platform ELiTeBUS 1000 has been accepted by the Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO) in the Rapid III Catalog managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. announced that its U.S. division, SSL, was selected to provide an SSL 1300 spacecraft bus to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for its Restore-L servicing mission.