Satellite News

The Astra 1M satellite, built by Astrium for SES Astra, will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 5 November, 2044 UTC.

Hubble Space Telescope regular science operations have been resumed, but NASA managers have announced that they will not meet a February 2009 launch date for the fifth and final repair mission, STS-125.

Northrop Grumman Corporation has completed manufacturing and integrating a spacecraft engine that runs on non-toxic propellants of liquid oxygen and liquid methane for possible use on NASA human exploration missions.

Chinese insurer People’s Insurance Company of China Property and Casualty Ltd. (PICC) said in a statement that it underwrote the launch of the Venesat communications satellite, and its first year in orbit, jointly with other 17 domestic insurers.

RRsat Global Communications Network Ltd. announced its financial results for the three-month period ending 30 September 2008.

Astra 5A (Sirius 2, GE 1E) was launched in November 1997, not November 2007 as erroneously claimed yesterday. The article in our archive has been corrected accordingly.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 3B; Payload: Venesat 1 (Simon Bolivar 1); Date: 29 October 2008, 1653 UTC; Site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. Venezuela’s first communication satellite was successfully placed into transfer orbit.

The launch of Astra 1M aboard a Proton M/Briz M has been delayed again.