Satellite News

Russia’s the Progress MS-04 cargo spacecraft was lost in a Soyuz-U launch failure. The rocket and its payload disintegrated in the skies over Southern Siberia after what appeared to be a catastrophic failure of the rocket’s third stage.

A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Medium+ (5,4) configuration will launch the eighth Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS-8) mission for the U.S. Air Force on 7/8 December 2016 (UTC) from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Iridium Communications Inc. announced the date for the first launch of its next-generation global satellite constellation, Iridium NEXT. Iridium will be launching on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on 16 December 2016 at 0836 UTC. Launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the Falcon 9 rocket will deliver 10 Iridium NEXT satellites into low-earth orbit.

Hispasat 36W-1, the first telecom satellite built using the SmallGEO platform, arrived in Kourou after completing its final tests at IABG in Germany. It will now start being prepared for launch on a Soyuz rocket in January.