Satellite News

The checks on the Gaia satellite are proceeding nominally, enabling Arianespace in agreement with ESA to announce the launch date. Lift-off of the Soyuz ST-B launcher is set for 19 December at precisely 0912:18 UTC.

After successfully placing the CASSIOPE satellite into orbit on 29 September, the upper stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 v1.1 failed to reignite as planned. The company said it has now identified the cause.

Rocket: Dnepr; Payload: DubaiSat 2, STSAT 3, SkySat 1, AprizeSat 7, AprizeSat 8 and several smaller satellites; Date: 21 November 2013, 0710 UTC; Launch Site: Yasny, Russia. All payloads were successfully deployed into orbit.

Arianespace and ELV (European Launch Vehicle) have signed an agreement for Arianespace to order 10 Vega launch vehicles from the Italian manufacturer.

Alphasat has reached its operational in-orbit position and has successfully completed all in-orbit tests.

NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is ready to begin collecting science data about the moon.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. has been authorised to proceed with development of a Payload Orbital Delivery system (POD) for the DARPA Phoenix mission. The expected contract value for full development of the flight system is US$6 million.

Science observations by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity have been suspended for a few days while engineers run tests to check possible causes of a voltage change detected on 17 November.