Satellite News

Arianespace’s fourth heavy-lift Ariane 5 to take flight in 2017 is “go” for its lift-off from the Spaceport in French Guiana on 28 June between 2059 and 2216 UTC.

Lockheed Martin said the company’s second GPS III satellite, and the third satellite is close behind, having just received its navigation payload.

Rocket: PSLV C38 ‘XL’; Payload: Cartosat-2E, 30 other satellites; Date: 23 June 2017, 0359 UTC; Launch site: Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, India. The rocket launched the 712 kg Cartosat-2 series satellite for Earth observation and 30 co-passenger satellites (total mass: about 243 kg) into a 505 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO).

Rocket: Soyuz 2-1v/Volga; Payload: classified; Date: 23 June 2017, 1804 UTC; Launch site: Plesetsk, Russia. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the launch went as scheduled.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: BulgariaSat 1; Date: 23 June 2017, 1910 UTC; Launch site: Kennedy Space Center, USA.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. announced that it has signed a contract with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to conduct a concept study to determine the feasibility of using a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Sub-Surface Ice Sounder and Imager as a potential payload on a future Mars orbiter mission.

The European Space Agency and Airbus Safran Launchers, the 50/50 joint-venture set up by the Airbus and Safran groups, which will become ArianeGroup have signed the first tranche of the development contract for the future Prometheus LOx-methane engine.

ViaSat Inc. announced that following the successful launch of the ViaSat-2 satellite on 1 June 2017, the satellite has now completed additional major milestones including the chemical orbit raising phase of the programme; and deployment of its solar arrays.