Satellite News

NASA is making final preparations to launch the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) aboard a Minotaur 5 at 0327 UTC on 7 September from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virgina.

Gaia, the most advanced space telescope ever built in Europe, has left the Toulouse facilities of Astrium after final integration and testing. Gaia is now en route to its launch site in French Guiana, where it will be prepared for launch aboard Soyuz.

ATK has shipped the primary mirror backplane support structure (PMBSS) for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to Marshall Space Flight Center. The highly engineered PMBSS is the backbone of the telescope, supporting the telescope’s beryllium mirrors, instruments and other elements.

A government commission has determined the degree of guilt of Khrunichev space centre executives responsible for the 2 July Proton rocket launch failure, Russia’s Vice-Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin was quoted as saying.