Satellite News

Russia’s State Space Corporation Roskosmos will receive the final design of a new RD-171MV engine intended for the first stage of the Soyuz-5 rocket until the end of the year, Head of Energomash Scientific and Production Association Igor Arbuzov was quoted as saying.

Orbital ATK announced that the recently launched Cygnus spacecraft successfully completed its rendezvous and berthing manoeuvres with the International Space Station. This marks the company’s eighth successful berthing with the orbiting laboratory.

Rocket Lab’s second Electron orbital launch vehicle has arrived at Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula, signalling the beginning of pre-flight checks ahead of Rocket Lab’s second test flight, dubbed ‘Still Testing’.

Acceptance tests on the Angosat spacecraft built by RSC Energia under a contract with the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Angola have been completed.

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) announced that General Atomics (GA) has acquired the assets of SSTL’s subsidiary in the U.S. (SST-US) as well as taking over its on-going projects.

Rocket: Antares; Payload: Cygnus OA-8; Date: 12 November 2017, 1219 UTC; Launch site: Wallops Flight Facility, USA. Orbital ATK’s eighth contracted cargo delivery flight to the International Space Station is scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station on 14 November.

After a successful year-long test campaign by Airbus at IABG in Ottobrunn near Munich, the twin GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On) satellites will soon travel to their launch site in California.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 3B; Payload: Beidou-3M1 (Beidou-24), Beidou-3M2 (Beidou-25); Date: 5 November 2017, 1145 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. This marked the return to flight of the rocket after a partial launch failure during the Zhongxing-9A (ChinaSat-9A) mission in June.