Satellite News

Chinese commercial launcher developer and launch service provider LandSpace Technology Corporation Ltd. (LandSpace) announced that the company is seeking and accepting payloads from around the world for the maiden launch of its proprietary ZhuQue-2 (ZQ-2) launcher powered by a LOX/LCH4 [liquid oxygen/methane] rocket engine.

An Iranian rocket exploded on its launch pad at Imam Khomeini Space Center in northern Iran before its scheduled launch on 29 August 2019, an Iranian official said.

Eutelsat Communications announced the safe arrival of Eutelsat 5 West B at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where it is due for launch on a Proton Briz M rocket on 30 September overseen by International Launch Services.

At Northrop Grumman Corporation in Redondo Beach, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Spacecraft Element (SCE) and Optical Telescope Element/Integrated Science Instrument Module (OTIS) are now one. Both halves of the telescope (SCE and OTIS) have been successfully assembled.

GomSpace and ESA have signed a development contract at a value of EUR1,425,000 for GomSpace Luxembourg SARL’s continued development of the Mega-Constellation Operations Platform (MCOP) product.

A week after its launch aboard a Chang Zheng 3B/E rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Chinasat 18 (Zhongxing 18, ZX 18) still has not left geostationary transfer orbit and might be considered a total loss.

Russia’s Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft with the humanoid robot Skybot F-850, nicknamed FEDOR, succeeded in automatically docking to the International Space Station (ISS) on the second try.

The European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover is leaving the UK for Airbus in Toulouse where it will undergo crucial testing ahead of delivery to Thales Alenia Space.