Satellite News

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has pushed the launch of its H-IIB Transport Vehicle (HTV)-5 to the International Space Station to 1235 UTC on Monday, 17 August.

The fourth heavy-lift Ariane 5 for lift-off in 2015 is now complete as both passengers for next week’s dual-payload mission to geostationary transfer orbit – Eutelsat 8 West B and Intelsat 34 – have been installed atop their launcher.

The fourth Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite built by Lockheed Martin for the U.S. Navy was encapsulated in its protective launch vehicle fairing. It is scheduled to launch on 31 August aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket between 0807 and 1207 UTC.

NASA has completed a 535-second test of its Space Launch System (SLS) RS-25 rocket engine to collect engine performance data.

After more than 10 days in space, China’s 19th Beidou navigation satellite is working autonomously and has set up a link with another satellite.

At the 29th annual American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)/Utah State University (USU) Conference on Small Satellites, The Planetary Society’s citizen-funded LightSail spacecraft test mission (LightSail-A) was named Mission of the Year by the AIAA Small Satellite Technical Committee. Eleven standout small satellite projects from around the world were nominated by a committee of experts.