Satellite News

Rocket: Proton M/Briz M; Payload: TURKSAT-4B; Date: 16 October 2015, 2040 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

Rocket: Chang Zheng-3B/G2; Payload: Apstar-9; Date: 16 October 2015, 1616 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. 26 minutes after lift-off , the satellite successfully entered transfer orbit after separating from the rocket.

Orbcomm Inc. announced that Orbcomm and SpaceX plan to launch eleven OG2 satellites from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on the next launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket targeted to take place in the next six to eight weeks.

The U. S. Air Force awarded launch services contracts for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) L-47 and Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) GEO-4 to United Launch Alliance (ULA) missions as part of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Phase 1 Block Buy contract.

The FORMOSAT-5 satellite has passed space environment and function tests and is expected to be launched at the end of February 2016, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) said.

The LISA Pathfinder demonstrator for space-based observations of gravitational waves is undergoing checkout, preparing it for a 2 December launch on Arianespace’s sixth flight of the Vega light-lift launcher from French Guiana.

Airbus Defence and Space has successfully completed the final integration and testing of the new Telstar 12 VANTAGE satellite for Telesat.

ISS-Reshetnev team has completed the main in-orbit flight testing programme on the telecommunications satellite Ekspress-AM8.