Satellite News

Rocket: Soyuz-U; Payload: Progress MS-03 [Progress 64]; Date: 16 July 2016, 2141 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The Progress cargo spacecraft was accurately placed on the target orbit.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: Dragon; Date: 18 July 2016, 0445 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The cargo vessel was placed in a 204 km x 355 km x 51.7 degrees orbit approx. 10 minutes after lift-off.

Following a successful NASA management review on 7 July, the Solar Probe Plus mission — which will send a spacecraft on several data-collecting runs through the Sun’s atmosphere — is moving into the system assembly, integration, test and launch stage of the project.

NASA has selected five U.S. aerospace companies to conduct concept studies for a potential future Mars orbiter mission. Such a mission would continue key capabilities including telecommunications and global high-resolution imaging.