Satellite News

The Russian Defence Ministry plans to launch a Rokot carrier rocket from the Plesetsk cosmodrome to put three Rodnik communications satellites into orbit on 23 September (UTC), the ministry’s press service announced.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Orbital ATK, Inc. announced a long-term strategic partnership in which Orbital ATK will become the sole provider of solid rocket boosters for ULA’s Atlas V and Vulcan launch vehicles, effective in 2019 when the new motors are ready for launch.

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi said Iran and France will soon start negotiations on building and launching of a national satellite, Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

Orbital ATK, Inc. announced its Space Components Division (SCD) shipped the fuel and oxidiser tanks to Northrop Grumman Corporation in Redondo Beach, California for integration into NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). These tanks will provide propulsion for JWST.

Airbus Defence and Space, prime contractor for NASA’s Orion space vehicle’s European Service Module (ESM), has completed four large titanium tanks for the module that will be delivered for initial testing. The tanks are the first hardware to be supplied for the Orion space vehicle.

NewSpace Systems, a South African Western Cape-based company which specialises in the manufacture of satellite components, just launched their own European Space Agency standard Clean Room facility in the wake of securing 22 contracts from 11 countries world-wide in their second year of operation.

Orbital ATK, Inc. has been awarded a Research and Technologies for Aerospace Propulsion Systems 2 (RTAPS2) contract by NASA to provide advanced space propulsion system technologies. NASA developed the RTAPS2 contract as part of aerospace research activities at the agency’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 6; Payload: 20 micro-/nano-satellites; Date: 19 September 2015, 2301 UTC; Launch site: Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China. The satellites, developed by a number of universities and space research institutes across China, include nine amateur radio satellites. The spacecraft were deployed into a 515 km x 550 km Sun-synchronous orbit 15 minutes after lift-off.