Satellite News

The European Space Agency (ESA) and Airbus have signed a commercial partnership (PPP) agreement for construction, launch and operations of the commercial “Bartolomeo” platform. Airbus’ new external payload hosting facility will be attached to the European Columbus module of the International Space Station (ISS) from mid-2019.

Rocket: Falcon Heavy; Payload: dummy mass; Date: 6 February 2018, 2145 UTC; Launch site: Kennedy Space Center, USA. At the time of writing this, the rocket’s second stage had completed the second of its three burns on this test flight.

Energia corporation has been designated as the developer of the Super-Heavy Space Launch Vehicle System (SH SLVS). Subcontractors include enterprises of the State Corporation Roskosmos: RSC Progress, TsENKI, etc.

A new deployable antenna reflector was qualified at the end of last year by Thales Alenia Space’s plant in Toulouse. Designed for the company’s future communications satellites, especially the Spacebus NEO product line, this new antenna reflector is 2.6 meters in diameter and features a highly standardised design. It will also adapt to changing geostationary telecom mission requirements.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 2D; Payload: Zhangheng-1 [China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-1)] plus six piggyback satellites; Date: 2 February 2018, 0751 UTC; Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China. All satellites were successfully deployed into their target orbit.

Rocket: SS 520 No. 5; Payload: TRICOM 1R; Date: 3 February 2018, 0503 UTC; Launch site: Uchinoura Space Center, Japan. The rocket about the size of a utility pole, measuring 10 meters in length and 50 centimeters in diameter, delivered its payload to its intended orbit, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne have cleared a significant milestone toward the first crewed flight of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) with the latest successful test firing of an RS-25 engine, which powers the heavy-lift rocket’s first stage.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded the project “Study on Launch Service Making Use of a Microlauncher” to the Spanish company PLD Space. The microlauncher study, a part of the ESA’s Future Launcher Preparatory Programme, will refine the definition of the European small satellite launcher project proposed by PLD Space, named ARION 2.