Satellite News

The fourth Ariane 5 for lift-off in 2015 has begun its integration process. This heavy-lift vehicle will be used for Flight VA225 in August, which will deliver two relay satellites – Eutelsat 8 West B and Intelsat 34 – to geostationary transfer orbit.

Delivered by the U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin, the fourth Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite arrived at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, prior to its expected August launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

Orbital ATK, Inc. announced that the Sky Mexico-1 (SkyM-1) satellite, built by the company for DirecTV, successfully completed on-orbit testing and checkout of all spacecraft systems. The satellite was handed over to DirecTV for full operational control after several weeks of orbit-raising activities that were conducted after the launch.

An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station broke apart shortly after lift-off from Cape Canaveral on 28 June 2015, 1421 UTC. NASA officials said they have enough supplies for the three-person crew on board the station to last until October.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 4B; Payload: Gaofen-8; Date: 26 June 2015, 0622 UTC; Launch site: Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China. The high-resolution optical Earth observation satellite was successfully launched for the China National Space Administration.

Russia will grant 21 Soyuz carrier rockets to Arianespace between 2017 and 2019 for launching OneWeb mobile communications satellites, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) said.

The Jason-3 satellite has arrived at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, after a journey from France, in preparation for launch on 8 August 2015 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Last night marked the end of Sentinel-2A’s first three days in space, which saw teams on the ground working around the clock to ensure the spacecraft is ready for its ‘colour vision’ mission.