Satellite News

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: PAZ, Microsat-2a, Microsat-2b; Date: 22 February 2018, 1417 UTC; Launch site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA. Ten minutes after launch, the PAZ satellite separated from the launcher and will soon be positioned at its 514 km orbit.

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter arrived at Mars in October 2016 in an initial, highly elliptical four-day orbit of about 98,000 x 200 km. Since March 2017, ESA had been conducting an aerobraking campaign, slowing the craft and lowering its orbit (to sometimes just 103 km altitude). At 1720 UTC on 20 February, ExoMars fired its thrusters for about 16 minutes to raise the closest approach to the surface to about 200 km, well out of the atmosphere.