Satellite News

The ground test stand and aerospike engine for the Demonstrator 3 rocket are ready for tests at ARCA Space Corporation. The effort was completed in 60 days since the start of fabrication. The results of the ground and test flight will be used by ARCA for the Haas 2CA Single Stage to Orbit rocket that is scheduled to be launched in 2018 from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.

China’s first cargo spacecraft, Tianzhou-1, has been deorbited.

Arianespace’s ninth launch of 2017 is now scheduled for 29 September between 2147 and 2225 UTC on a dual-payload Ariane 5 mission to geostationary transfer orbit with Intelsat 37e and BSAT-4a.

Iridium Communications announced that all 10 Iridium NEXT satellites for the third launch are onsite at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California. Pre-launch processing activities are underway, which includes mating them to the dispensers, fuelling and encapsulation within the fairing.

ASTROSCALE Japan Inc. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency have signed a joint research agreement regarding the removal of space debris.

The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument, designed and built by Ball Aerospace for NASA, has completed spectrometer testing and verification.

On 15 September, CNES and ArianeGroup–the lead contractor for the Ariane family of launch vehicles–signed an agreement to step up their co-operation.

SES, EchoStar Corp., and Airbus Defence and Space announced that the new EchoStar 105/SES-11 spacecraft, built by Airbus, has been shipped from the Airbus facilities in Toulouse, France, to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for its forthcoming launch by SpaceX in October.