Satellite News

Rocket: Soyuz-U; Payload: Progress M-21M; Date: 25 November 2013, 2053 UTC; Launch Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The unmanned cargo transporter is to arrive at the International Space Station on 29 November.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 2D; Payload: Shiyan Weixing-5; Date: 25 November 2013, 0212 UTC; Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China. State media reported the launch was successful.

A milestone in developing Europe’s contribution to NASA’s Orion crew vehicle, expected to take human crews beyond Earth orbit later this decade, has been set for next May. The period until then will allow for an in-depth design analysis for the proposed European hardware.

The integration of Sentinel 1A environmental satellite, built by Thales Alenia Space for European Space Agency (ESA), is being finalised in the company’s clean rooms in Rome.

A U.S. Air Force C-5 transport aircraft carrying the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory landed at Kitakyushu Airport, Japan, on 23 November.

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity resumed full science operations on 23 November.

Boeing’s Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T) development programme has completed the functional qualification testing phase for the protected wideband satellite communications system. FAB-T will be used in the command and control of U.S. nuclear forces.

Rocket: Rokot/Briz-KM; Payload: three Swarm satellites; Date: 22 November 2013, 1202 UTC; Launch site: Plesetsk, Russia. Some 91 minutes later, the Briz-KM upper stage released the three satellites into a near-polar circular orbit at an altitude of 490 km. There are some indications that a subsequent manoeuvre to lower the upper stage’s altitude did not go as planned.