Satellite News

EUMETSAT and CNES have signed a co-operation agreement for the development of a new generation of Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometers (IASI-NG) to be flown on three successive Metop-SG A satellites of the EUMETSAT Polar System of Second Generation (EPS-SG) in the 2021-2040 timeframe.

Japan has agreed to continue using the International Space Station (ISS) until 2024, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.

An interdepartmental commission at Russia’s Plesetsk spaceport has admitted that the Kanopus-ST satellite launched on 5 December was lost as it did not separate from its carrier rocket’s Volga upper stage.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) performed the attitude control engine thrust operation of the Venus Climate Orbiter “Akatsuki” for its Venus orbit insertion from 2351 UTC on 6 December.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has completed operation of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E).

NASA’s two Nodes small satellites hitched a ride to the International Space Station on the fourth Orbital ATK cargo mission, which launched on 6 December. Once aboard the station, the satellites will settle in for a two-to-three month stay until deployed into low-Earth orbit in early 2016.

Rocket: Atlas V 401; Payload: OA-4 Cygnus; Date: 6 December 2015, 2144 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The mission, flown for Orbital ATK under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract, marks the first time the Cygnus has flown on an Atlas V rocket. The launch had been delayed for three consecutive days owing to bad weather.

Rocket: Soyuz 2.1v/Volga; Payload: Kanopus ST (Kosmos 2511), KYuA 1 (Kosmos 2512); Date: 5 December 2015; Launch site: Plesetsk, Russia. The launch appears to have been only partially successful as one of the satellites reportedly did not separate.