Satellite News

Rocket: Chang Zheng 2D; Payload: Gaofen-6, Luojia-1; Date: 2 June 2018, 0413 UTC; Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China. Gaofen-6 will be mainly used in agricultural resources research and disaster monitoring, state media said. A scientific experiment satellite named Luojia-1 was sent into space at the same time.

NASA has selected a science mission planned for launch in 2024 that will sample, analyse, and map particles streaming to Earth from the edges of interstellar space.

Over the past week, two CubeSats called MarCO-A and MarCO-B have been firing their propulsion systems to guide themselves toward Mars. This process, called a trajectory correction manoeuvre, allows a spacecraft to refine its path to Mars following launch. Both CubeSats successfully completed this maneuver; NASA’s InSight spacecraft completed the same process on 22 May.