Satellite News

Iridium Communications Inc. reported financial results for the first quarter of 2018.

Rocket: Rokot; Payload: Sentinel-3B; Date: 25 April 2018, 1757 UTC; Launch site: Plesetsk, Russia. Rokot’s upper stage delivered Sentinel-3B into its planned orbit.

Next-generation GLONASS satellites will be put into orbit starting next year, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin was quoted as saying.

The relay satellite for the Chang’e-4 lunar probe expected to land on the far side of the Moon later this year, has been named “Queqiao” – magpie bridge.

Due to additional technical checks with the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) GSAT-11 satellite, to be conducted from the ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) located at Bengalaru, the Ariane 5 launch initially planned for 25 May 2018, VA243, has been postponed.

The first elements of the BepiColombo spacecraft, which will be heading to Mercury from autumn 2018, have arrived per plane at the European Spaceport Kourou in French Guiana. This flight was the first of four needed to transport the spacecraft and all handling and test equipment to Kourou. The flights are supported by three transports by ship for further items.

Lockheed Martin reported financial results for the first quarter 2018.

Roskosmos said that Angola’s first national telecoms satellite, AngoSat-1, was inoperative and Russia would build another one for launch in 2020.