Satellite News

Rocket: Atlas V 401; Payload: Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN); Date: 18 November 2013, 1828 UTC, Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The NASA spacecraft separated from the rocket’s second stage 53 minutes after launch. The solar arrays deployed approximately one hour after launch and currently power the spacecraft. MAVEN now is embarking on a 10-month interplanetary cruise before arriving at Mars next September.

Preparations for Friday’s launch of ESA’s magnetic explorer have reached an important milestone – the constellation is now in the Plesetsk launch tower.

The telecommunications spacecraft Ekspress-AM5, developed and built by ISS-Reshetnev Company, has arrived safely at the Baikonur cosmodrome in preparation for launch.

ISRO successfully performed the last of the five orbit-raising manoeuvre on its Mars Orbiter.

Boeing subsidiary Spectrolab recently set a new world record by producing a solar cell that converted 38.8% of solar energy into electricity, more than any other ground-based solar cell not using concentrated sunlight.