Satellite News

The U.S. Air Force confirmed there will be five more Delta IV Heavy missions. United Launch Alliance will be paid the manufacturing costs and on top receive US$1.18 billion to support those five launches.

Arianespace said it welcomes the Space Safety Coalition’s initiative to better preserve the orbital environment and endorses this organisation’s related guidelines: “Best Practices for the Sustainability of Space Operations.”

GHGSat, a private company which owns and operates the world’s first and only satellite designed to monitor greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources, has named its third satellite (GHGSat-C2), Hugo.

The first launch of a new Angara heavy carrier rocket from the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East is due to take place at the end of the summer of 2023, Head of the State Space Corporation Roskosmos Dmitry Rogozin said.

Ariane 6’s Vulcain 2.1 liquid-fuelled engine has now completed its qualification testing, which means combined tests can now begin. A review last week marked the culmination of two Vulcain static firing test campaigns over 15 months on two demonstration models in test facilities at the DLR German Aerospace Center test facility in Lampoldshausen.

Ball Aerospace delivered the Operational Land Imager 2 (OLI-2) for Landsat 9, completing development of the instrument on schedule and under budget. Ball will continue to support instrument integration and spacecraft-level testing, working closely with NASA and the Landsat 9 spacecraft provider.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc., announced that it received a US$7.5 million award to enhance the Enterprise Management & Control (EM&C) architecture with a Satellite Situational Awareness, Common Operating Picture (SA-COP). In addition, Kratos will introduce new orchestration capabilities that automate the configuration of terminals and supporting networks and scale this capability to support a world-wide network of satellite gateways, terminals and terrestrial infrastructure.

Rocket: Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat M; Payload: EKS-3 [Tundra 3, Kosmos-2541]; Date: 26 September 2019, 0746 UTC; Launch site: Plesetsk, Russia. The early warning was deployed as planned and has been tracked in a 1,646 km x 38,537 km x 63.83 degrees Molniya orbit.