Satellite News

Rocket: Delta II 7920-10C; Payload: Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) Advanced Technology Risk Reduction (ATRR); Date: 5 May 2009, 2024 UTC; Site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA. The military spacecraft was released into its target orbit 58 minutes after lift-off.

Both spacecraft for the next Ariane 5 launch have been integrated on the launcher, marking a major new step in preparations for Arianespace’s upcoming heavy-lift mission.

Cold tests were completed last month of the URM-1 (Universal Rocket Module) for the Angara family of launch vehicles at the Russian Integration and Testing Facility of the Rocket and Space Industry Research and Testing Center.

Preparations for the launch of Russia’s Fobos-Grunt probe proceed strictly as planned, the general director and general designer of the Lavochkin research and production association, Georgy Polishchuk, was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass.

The latest GPS satellite, launched on 24 March, has not yet been set healthy after problems with the L1 and L2 signals the spacecraft broadcasts.

The dual launch of the space telescopes Herschel and Planck will be the first occasion on which the new horizontal separation system HSS-3 in the Ariane payload fairing will be used.

Lockheed Martin said a team led by the company is providing support to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the planning, training and implementation of Servicing Mission 4 (SM-4) to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), scheduled for launch on 11 May.

Officials from Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center’s Global Positioning Systems Wing announced the release of a request for proposal (RFP) for Phase B of the Next Generation GPS Control Segment (OCX) contracts.