Satellite News

Cargo spacecraft Progress MS-08 has been undocked from the International Space Station (ISS). Its deorbiting is due on 30 August the rocket and spacecraft scientific centre TsNIIMash said.

Aerojet Rocketdyne said the company’s XR-5 Hall Thruster system aboard Al Yah 3 operated for more than 600 hours (over 25 days of firing) to propel the spacecraft to the intended orbit, which aided recovery from a launch insertion anomaly last January.

Rocket: Vega; Payload: Aeolus; Date: 22 August 2018, 2119 UTC; Launch site: Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite was deployed into Sun-synchronous orbit 55 minutes after lift-off. Acquisition of satellite telemetry was confirmed about 15 minutes later.

As the first Lockheed Martin-built GPS III satellite prepares to ship to the launch pad, the U.S. Air Force has declared that the second GPS III satellite is complete, fully tested and ready to launch.

The construction of a launch pad for the Angara rocket is underway at the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East, according to Khrunichev Space Center.

Stratolaunch announced its new family of launch vehicles will enter regular service starting in 2020. The company’s air-launch system will use the world’s largest aircraft as a mobile launch platform, capable of deploying launch vehicles that will carry satellites to multiple orbits and inclinations on a single mission.

NASA’s InSight spacecraft, en route to a 26 November landing on Mars, passed the halfway mark on 6 August. All of its instruments have been tested and are working well.

The lift-off of Arianespace’s Flight VV12 with Europe’s Aeolus satellite has been delayed by 24 hours due to winds at altitude over the Spaceport in French Guiana.