Satellite News

Rocket: H-IIA No. 34; Payload: Michibiki 2; Date: 1 June 2017, 0017 UTC; Launch site: Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. The launch and flight proceeded as planned and the separation of the satellite was confirmed 28 minutes 21 seconds after lift-off.

Rocket: Ariane 5 ECA; Payload: ViaSat-2, Eutelsat 172B; Date: 1 June 2017, 2345 UTC; Launch site: Kourou, French Guiana. The successful mission set a record for the total mass carried into geostationary transfer orbit.

Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp is expected to let the US$14 billion merger between OneWeb and Intelsat SA fall through after failing to get enough of Intelsat creditors to back it.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced that it has completed construction of a facility that will double the satellite component production capacity of its Kamakura Works’ Sagami Factory in Sagamihara, Japan.

NASA has renamed the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft — humanity’s first mission to a star, which will launch in 2018 — as the Parker Solar Probe in honour of astrophysicist Eugene Parker.