Satellite News

ISRO has set the launch of the Earth observation Cartosat-2F satellite for 12 January. The Indian space agency had earlier planned to launch the Earth observation satellite on 10 January.

Arianespace signed an agreement to launch two satellites for Intelsat. This continues the longstanding relationship between Intelsat and Arianespace that dates back to 1983.

ArianeGroup and its Arianespace subsidiary have announced an order for 10 Ariane 5 ECA launchers – the last of their kind.

The super-secret U.S. satellite known as Zuma may have been lost after its recent launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, some reports said. The launch provider said its rocket functioned as expected, though. The only fact known so far is that there has been no official confirmation of either success or failure by any party involved in this mission.

Viasat Inc. has begun beta service on the ViaSat-2 satellite, and affirmed plans for full commercial service launch in February 2018 even though an in-orbit antenna issue has been detected.

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.