Satellite News

Russia has launched the first Angara rocket from the Plesetsk military cosmodrome. It is the first rocket designed in Russia from a scratch since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Development had started in 1992.

Arianespace’s second Soyuz launch at the service of O3b Networks has been approved for lift-off tomorrow from the Spaceport in French Guiana.

Aerojet Rocketdyne has completed a study with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. to develop a common upper stage service for NASA, designed to enhance the performance of the NASA Launch Services (NLS) II medium and heavy launch vehicles for planetary and heliophysics missions, and pave the way for additional missions by providing more affordable launch services.

Control of the six small satellites launched aboard a Soyuz-2.1b was turned over to the customers, the Roskosmos press service was quoted as saying. The primary payload was Russia’s Meteor-M2 weather satellite.

Inmarsat confirmed that Michele Franci has been appointed as its Chief Technology Officer.