Satellite News

The Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province will host around 20 launch missions in 2020, including two satellites of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), according to an official from the centre.

Rocket Lab has begun construction on a new launch pad located at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The new pad will be the company’s third launch pad for the Electron launch vehicle, joining the existing pad at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand and the newly opened pad at Launch Complex 2 in Virginia, USA.

Capella Space, an information services company that provides on-demand Earth observation imagery, has signed a contract with the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), to study the integration of its synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery into the NRO’s national ground architecture.

Rocket: Chang Zheng-3A; Payload: Beidou-3M19 (Beidou-52), Beidou-3M20 (Beidou-53); Date: 16 December 2019, 0722 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. The two navigation satellites were placed into approx. 22,524 km x 22,193 km x 55.02 degrees orbit after a flight of more than three hours.

Vector Launch Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, with a deal to sell its GalacticSky satellite software business to Lockheed Martin for US$4.25 million.

The Soyuz vehicle for Arianespace’s year-ending mission has arrived at the launch zone in French Guiana, where it stands ready to receive the multi-satellite payload that will be lofted on this 17 December flight.

Northrop Grumman Corporation announced that Saturn Satellite Networks has selected the OmegA space launch vehicle to launch up to two satellites on the rocket’s inaugural flight scheduled for spring 2021.

Kepler announced that it has selected SpaceX as launch partner to deliver a portion of its first Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation into space onboard SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 launch vehicle.