Satellite News

United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully completed the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for the Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle with dual Blue Origin BE-4 engines.

Rocket: Atlas V 401/Centaur; Payload: OA-6/Cygnus; Date: 23 March 2016; Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. Approximately 21 minutes after lift-off, the spacecraft successfully separated from the Centaur upper stage at its initial orbit, approximately 230 km above the Earth, inclined at 51.6 degrees to the equator.

The ESA-Roskosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing demonstrator are well on their way following the 14 March launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, ESA said.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. has received an order for H-IIA launch services from the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for launch of the Emirates Mars Mission’s (EMM) Hope spacecraft.

The Vostochny spaceport has begun comprehensive tests of the launch site, and a Soyuz launch vehicle’s dry rollout has been practised, Roskosmos head Igor Komarov told reporters.

Space Systems Loral (SSL) announced that it was selected to provide a high power all-electric satellite to Eutelsat. The satellite will principally provide broadcast services to multiple regions including Africa, the Middle East, and Turkey.

The Near Infrared Spectrograph NIRSpec and Mid-Infrared Instrument MIRI have passed an extensive series of tests in preparation for their integration on the James Webb space telescope. Airbus Defence and Space supported this test campaign, like the previous ones.

After an operational orbit of 1,630 days, China’s first space lab Tiangong-1 terminated its data service, the manned space engineering office said.