Satellite News

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: Zuma; Date: 8 January 2018, 0100 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The payload’s owner and the spacecraft’s purpose are unknown.

Orbital ATK has been awarded a contract by Intelsat to build the Galaxy 30 communications satellite. The satellite will be based on Orbital ATK’s GEOStar-2 satellite platform.

With the emergence of the next-generation GOES-16 as the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s new GOES-East satellite, GOES-13, which held the position since April 2010, was powered down on 8 January 2018. It can be reactivated if one of NOAA’s other operational or backup satellites experiences trouble.