Satellite News

Arianespace’s dual-payload mission to orbit telecommunications satellites for Brazil and South Korea has been given the go-ahead for a lift-off from the Spaceport in French Guiana on 21 March, carrying the SGDC and Koreasat-7 relay platforms.

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has completed another set of important science calibration tests before a year of aerobraking gets underway.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: EchoStar 23 [EchoStar XXIII]; Date: 16 March 2017, 0600 UTC, Launch site: Kennedy Space Center, USA. The satellite was succvessfully deployed into geostationary transfer orbit.

The ULA Delta IV rocket carrying the WGS-9 satellite for the U.S. Air Force is scheduled for 18/19 March (UTC). The Delta IV is set to lift off from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The U.S. Air Force announced the award of the second competitively sourced National Security Space (NSS) launch services contract in more than a decade. Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) was awarded a contract for Global Positioning System (GPS) III Launch Services.

Eutelsat 172B, the first high power all-electric telecommunications satellite, is now ready for shipment on 20 March from the Airbus satellite assembly facility in Toulouse to Kourou, French Guiana for Eutelsat. The satellite will be launched into orbit on an Ariane 5 in April, and will provide enhanced telecommunications, in-flight broadband and broadcast services for the Asia-Pacific region.

SES announced that the SES-15 satellite has arrived at the European space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, in preparation for its launch by a Soyuz vehicle in April 2017.

Zero 2 Infinity, a company specialised in Space transportation systems based in Barcelona, Spain, said it successfully launched its first rocket from a balloon on 1 March.