Satellite News

ESA inaugurated a new tracking dish in Australia yesterday, marking a significant step in the Agency’s world-wide satcom network.

JAXA has decided to delay the flight of a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA 204 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center owing to encroaching rough weather. A new launch date of the X-ray Astronomy Satellite (ASTRO-H) has not been announced.

Silent since its last call to mothership Rosetta seven months ago, the Philae lander is facing conditions on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from which it is unlikely to recover.

The Orion crew module pressure vessel has arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is now secured in an upgraded version of a test stand called the “birdcage” inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building high bay, where the spacecraft is being prepared for a mission past the moon during Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1).

Rocket: Delta IV Medium+ (5,2); Payload: NROL-45 [USA 267; Topaz 4?]; Date: 10 February 2016, 140 UTC; Launch site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA. The satellite was probably deployed into into an 1,100 km x 123 degrees retrograde orbit.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced the launch time and launch window for the X-ray Astronomy Satellite (ASTRO-H) by H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 30 (H-IIA F30).

Arianespace and ViaSat Inc. have contracted for the launches of ViaSat-2 and a ViaSat-3 class satellite.

Spaceflight announced it is the first launch services provider to be awarded the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Professional Services Schedule.