Satellite News

Rocket: Chang Zheng 4B; Payload: Huan Jing 2A, Huan Jing 2B (HJ-2A, HJ-2B); Date: 27 September 2020, 0323 UTC; Launch site: Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China. The satellites were deployed into approx. 600 km x 654 km x 97.98 degrees Sun-synchronous orbits.

NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to provide launch services for the agency’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission, which includes four secondary payloads.

The U.S. Space Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s Lockheed Martin-built GPS III Space Vehicle 04 (GPS III SV04) satellite was encapsulated within a SpaceX payload fairing at Astrotech Space Operations Florida facility on 21 September in preparation for its upcoming launch on 30 September (UTC) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

The U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center Launch Enterprise and Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) recently signed a contract modification to reuse a Falcon 9 first-stage booster – for the first time on a National Security Space Launch mission – starting with the fifth Global Positioning System (GPS)-III satellite, scheduled to launch next year.

The U.S. military has begun publicly sharing data for debris-on-debris conjunction predictions via www.Space-Track.org.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions announced that it has joined with Microsoft to enable the launch of Microsoft Azure Orbital, a platform that provides Ground Station-as-a-Service (GSaaS) to the satellite industry.

On Sept. 27, 1997, NASA’s Mars Pathfinder mission beamed its very last data transmission back to Earth. See how it happened in our “On This Day In Space” series!

A private cargo spacecraft will lift off from Virginia on Tuesday (Sept. 29), carrying nearly 8,000 lbs. (3,629 kilograms) of supplies to the International Space Station — including a new toilet.