Satellite News

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: Dragon CRS-18; Date: 25 July 2019, 2201 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Dragon separated from Falcon 9’s second stage about nine minutes after lift-off and arrived at the ISS on 27 July.

Russia may start using its RD-180 rocket engines, which it exports to the United States but does not currently use itself, in the first stages of Soyuz-2.1 carriers, Russian State Space Corporation Roskosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin was quoted as saying.

Thales Alenia Space in Spain has delivered the communications module for the Euclid satellite to Thales Alenia Space’s Turin plant, where it will be integrated with the service module.

According to Euroconsult’s newly released research, Government Space Programs: Benchmarks, Profiles & Forecasts to 2028, global government space budgets are in the early stages of a ten year growth cycle with total world expenditures reaching US$70.9 billion in 2018, and forecasted to grow to US$84.6 billion by 2025.

Rocket: Hyperbola-1; Payload: CAS 7B, others ; Date: 25 July, 0500 UTC; Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, China. It was the first successful orbital launch by a privately funded Chinese firm.

OneWeb plans to begin launching 35 to 40 communications satellites a month in December, and has 27 Soyuz rocket missions lined up through Arianespace to send them aloft, company officials said.

Airbus Defence and Space has completed the first step in the construction of the inner structure of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) JUICE satellite. This is the beginning of its earthly journey through different Airbus sites in Europe (Lampoldshausen, Friedrichshafen and Toulouse) towards final integration.

NASA’s Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, Thomas Zurbuchen, has given the go-ahead to begin fuelling the Mars 2020 rover’s Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, or MMRTG.