Satellite News

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is ready to loft classified satellite into orbit for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office on the NROL-39 mission. Lift-off is scheduled for 0713 UTC on 6 December from Vandenberg Air Force Base. However, meteorologists predict cold temperatures will likely prevent launch.

Subject to the decision by the State Review Board, the Proton M integrated launch vehicle with a Briz M upper stage carrying the Inmarsat 5F-1 spacecraft was delivered to the Launch Facility today.

The Soyuz rocket that is to launch ESA’s Gaia is completing its basic build-up following mating of the vehicle’s Block I third stage in French Guiana.

DARPA’s Membrane Optical Imager for Real-Time Exploitation (MOIRE) programme aims to create technologies that would enable future high-resolution orbital telescopes to provide real-time video and images of the Earth from Geosynchronous Earth Orbit. Size and cost constraints have so far prevented placing large-scale imaging satellites in GEO, so MOIRE is developing technologies that would make orbital telescopes much lighter, more transportable and more cost-effective.