Satellite News

ESA has agreed with NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to make data available to them from the European Sentinel satellites.

Rocket: Proton M/Briz M; Payload: ExoMars 2016 [Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), Schiaparelli]; Date: 14 February 2016, 0931 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The launch and subsequent flight performed nominally.

Rocket: Soyuz-2-1b; Payload: Resurs-P No. 3 [Resurs P3]; Date: 13 March 2016, 1856 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The remote sensing satellite was accurately placed on a 279 x 452 km x 97.3 degrees orbit 9 minutes, 21 seconds after lift-off. However, one of the satellite’s solar panels apparently did not deploy correctly.

Payload preparation activity for Arianespace’s Soyuz Flight VS14 is underway in French Guiana following the separate deliveries of this upcoming mission’s primary satellite passenger – Sentinel-1B – and the first of three additional payloads that will join it, the Microscope spacecraft.

Space Systems Loral (SSL) announced that the JCSAT-14 satellite, which it designed and built for Sky Perfect JSAT, has arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, where it will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

NASA’s Game Changing Development (GCD) programme has selected four proposals to develop solar array technologies that will aid spacecraft in exploring destinations well beyond low-Earth orbit.

NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne have test-fired the Space Launch System’s first RS-25 flight engine, E2059, for 500 seconds at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The Space Launch System (SLS) is the United States’ next-generation heavy lift launch vehicle, and it will be capable of lifting three times more payload capability than any existing launch vehicle.

SES S.A. announced the signature of contracts for the next phase of the development of a new-generation satellite programme which was launched in 2013. Under the Electra programme name, OHB will be developing a fully electric satellite platform to reduce mass and launch costs.