Satellite News

An Antares rocket carrying a Cygnus transporter to the ISS on the commercial Orb-3 resupply mission exploded about six seconds after lift-off on 28 October, 2222 UTC from Wallops Flight Facility, USA.

A plane carrying a European satellite [apparently Astra 2G] on the way to the Baikonur cosmodrome has made an emergency landing at the airport of Ulyanovsk in Russia, a spokesperson for the Volga Investigative Committee on Transport

The Yamal 401 telecommunications spacecraft was delivered to the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a cargo plane.

The U.S. Air Force is scheduled to launch the eighth Boeing-built Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch vehicle, on 29 October. The launch window opens at 1721 UTC and will remain open for 18 minutes.

Russian Satellite Communications Company said in a brief statement that it will take the recently launched Ekspress-AM6 seven months to become operational, almost twice the time originally expected.

China’s experimental spacecraft, designed to fly around the moon and back to Earth, entered lunar orbit on Monday and is making necessary preparations for its trip back home.

The European Commission and ESA have signed an Agreement of over EUR3 billion to manage and implement the Copernicus ‘space component’ between 2014 and 2021.

Chinese Tycoon Wang Jing has unveiled plans to develop a constellation of satellites aimed at providing low-cost mobile communication services across China, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.