Satellite News

Rocket: Kuaizhou-1A; Payload: Centispace-1-s1; Date: 29 September 2018, 0413 UTC; Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China. About six and a half hours after leaving the pad, the state-run Xinhua press agency confirmed launch success.

Following completion of a competitive procurement, ULA has selected Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine for Vulcan Centaur’s booster stage. The liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuelled booster will be powered by a pair of BE-4 engines, each producing 2.45 MN (550,000 lbf) of sea level thrust.

The U.S. Air Force’s fourth Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF-4) communication satellite was encapsulated on 26 September at Astrotech Space Operations processing facility in Florida.

Ground controllers successfully installed the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Kounotori 7 H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-7) to the International Space Station’s Earth-facing port of the Harmony module on 27 September (UTC).

Lockheed Martin received a contract for the first two GPS IIIF satellites, Space Vehicles 11 and 12, which are follow-ons to the initial 10-satellites of the new GPS III constellation.