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Archive for December 18th, 2014

India successfully tests its latest and largest rocket

December 18th, 2014 by

Rocket: GSLV Mk-III; Payload: Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE); Date: 18 December 2014, 0400 UTC; Launch site: Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota, India. The mission, the first experimental flight of India’s next generation launch vehicle, was successful.

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O3b satellites 9 – 12 in orbit

December 18th, 2014 by

Rocket: Soyuz ST-B; Payload: four O3b satellites; Date: 18 December 2014, 1837 UTC; Launch site: Sinnamary, French Guiana. The third batch of four spacecraft in the O3b medium Earth orbit (MEO) constellation, operated by O3b Networks, was successfully launched.

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Falcon 9 to lift TESS

December 18th, 2014 by

NASA has selected SpaceX to provide launch services for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. TESS will launch aboard a Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle, with lift-off targeted for August 2017 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

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Delay of the day I: Falcon 9/Dragon CRS-5 (again)

December 18th, 2014 by

NASA and SpaceX announced the launch of SpaceX’s fifth commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station now will occur no earlier than Tuesday, 6 January.

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Delay of the day II: Strela/Kondor-E2

December 18th, 2014 by

The launch of Russia’s Strela rocket with a Kondor-E radar imaging satellite from the Baikonur cosmodrome has been postponed until 19 December.

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Inmarsat-5 F2 satellite arrives at launch site

December 18th, 2014 by

The second Global Xpress (GX) satellite – Inmarsat-5 F2 – has arrived at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, in anticipation of its launch early in 2015.

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Airbus DS tests new storable fuel upper-stage propulsion

December 18th, 2014 by

Airbus DS Space Systems engineers have developed an upper-stage engine demonstrator for the European Space Agency (ESA). Results of the recently completed test campaign are promising; the engine meets all requirements to replace other models currently in service, such as on the Vega rocket.

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8th Boeing GPS IIF becomes active

December 18th, 2014 by

The eighth Boeing Global Positioning System IIF satellite has completed on-orbit checkout and joined the active 31-satellite constellation.

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