Satellite News

The launch for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission remains on track for 8 September. Initial assessments indicate the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and OSIRIS-REx spacecraft are healthy and secure in the Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex-41, 1.8 km from the SLC-40 pad where a SpaceX Falcon 9 disintegrated yesterday. Otherwise, there’s little news regarding the cause and the effects of the Falcon 9 mishap. Sometimes it seems, though, that the wrong questions are being asked.

Roskosmos has postponed the launch of a Proton-M with the EchoStar-21 satellite from 10 October to 23 November. It also has postponed the launch of the Russian Earth remote sensing satellite Kanopus-V-IK from October to 22 December.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency have set a date for the launch of the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 31 (H-IIA F31) with the Geostationary Meteorological Satellite “Himawari-9”.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has exploded on the launch pad during preparations for a routine static fire test. Nobody was injured, however the rocket’s payload, Space-Communication’s Amos 6 satellite, was destroyed.

There is growing speculation that the launch of the Gaofen-10 remote sensing satellite from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China aboard a Chang Zheng-4C has failed. Lift-off was scheduled for 31 August at around 1850 UTC. There has been no official confirmation so far.

NASA has awarded a contract extension to Lockheed Martin Space Systems Corporation to continue maintaining the health and safety of the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope observatory through the next phase of its science mission.