Satellite News

A new highly precise MicroWave Radiometer (MWR) built by Airbus is ready to start operations after the launch of the Sentinel-3B satellite built by Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor for this programme. Launch aboard a Rokot lifting off from Plesetsk, Russia, is currently scheduled for 25 April, 1757 UTC.

Rocket: Proton M/Briz M; Payload: Blagovest 12L [military designation likely Kosmos 2526]; Date: 18 April 2018, 2212 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The dual-use satellite was delivered into geostationary transfer orbit approx. 9 hours after lift-off.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite); Date: 18 April 2018, 2251 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. Falcon 9 delivered TESS to a highly elliptical orbit and the spacecraft was deployed approximately 49 minutes after lift-off.

Arianespace announced that it will launch BSAT-4b, under the term of a turnkey contract between B-SAT and Maxar’s SSL.

Lockheed Martin is providing the Commonwealth of Australia with an iSpace Space Situational Awareness training and demonstration mission system.

“A national level committee to review Chandrayaan-2 recommended some additional tests before the mission could take off, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sources said.” (NDTV)

“Getting to space is already tough, but getting there on short notice and then doing it again a couple weeks later? That’s a big ask. Nevertheless, DARPA i is asking it as part of its Launch Challenge … Teams must take a payload to space with only days to prepare, then do it again soon after — if they want to win the $10M grand prize.” (TechCrunch)

NASA’s ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) recently arrived at Kennedy Space Center and has begun begin final preparations for launch to the International Space Station this summer.