Satellite News

NASA’s newest space weather research satellite, the Ionospheric Connection Explorer, is on course for a summer 2017 launch after UC Berkeley scientists and their colleagues shipped its four instruments to Utah for testing, prior to being packed into the final satellite.

The ultra-sensitive, highly precise Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument for the James Webb Space Telescope beat its most stringent requirements during Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) testing, which is now complete.

European launch company PLD Space has been awarded by the Spanish Government with a US$1.56 million propulsion project called TEPREL. TEPREL (Acronym for Spanish Reusable Propulsion Technologies for Launchers) will help PLD Space to continue their liquid rocket engine programme, the first one dedicated to boost the small satellite industry in Europe. This project will help PLD Space to have a 35-kN engine qualified for flight by the end of 2017.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: Dragon/CRS-8; Date: 8 April 2016, 2043 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The Dragon supply vessel was successfully launched on its way to the ISS, where it is expected to arrive on 10 April. In addition, an attempt to land the Falcon 9’s first stage on a sea-going platform succeeded for the first time.

Testing of the ground control system of the GLONASS satellite navigation system has been completed, Nikolay Testoyedov, the Head of the Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems Company was quoted as saying.

Sea Launch has been sold, the head of the Roskosmos corporation, Igor Komarov said. He refused to name the buyer.

The U.S. Air Force has ceased efforts to regain control over the DMSP F19 weather satellite, which failed in orbit less than two years after launch.

ULA confirmed that during the launch of the OA-6 Cygnus spacecraft aboard an Atlas V, the system experienced a premature first stage shutdown.