Satellite News

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: Dragon/CRS-14; Date: 3 April 2018, 1230 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. SpaceX did not attempt to recover Falcon 9’s first stage after launch.

Arianespace’s next Ariane 5 flight has been authorised for lift-off on 5 April following a launch readiness review, which was conducted at the Spaceport in French Guiana.

SSL was selected by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to design and build critical equipment for the Europa Clipper spacecraft that will explore Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.

Deep Space Industries (DSI) announced that it has signed a contract to provide its Comet water-based satellite propulsion systems for the BlackSky Earth observation constellation of smallsats.

The Chinese Tiangong-1 space station burned up in the atmosphere over the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. According to the Chinese Manned Space Agency (CMSA), the vast majority of its debris did not reach the Earth.

The in-orbit delivery ceremony of Alcomsat-1 was held on 1 April at the headquarters of Algeria Space Agency (ASAL); the In-Orbit Delivery & Final Acceptance Certificate was signed.

Bangabandhu Satellite-1 left Thales Alenia Space’s Cannes plant on 28 March and has arrived at Cape Canaveral on 30 March.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: 10 Iridium NEXT satellites; Date: 30 March 2018, 1413 UTC; Launch site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA. All 10 new satellites have successfully communicated with the Iridium Satellite Network Operations Center and are preparing to begin testing.