Satellite News

The U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 19 ceased transmitting weather data after nearly three and a half years of operational service.

The launch of India’s latest navigation satellite onboard its polar rocket failed following a technical glitch. The rocket’s payload fairing failed to separate, meaning the satellite was trapped inside it and could not be deployed.

Thousands of ATMs and electronic card payment machines in Indonesia went offline after an outage from PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia’s Telkom-1 satellite.

Rocket Lab, an American-New Zealand aerospace company, said it has completed an internal review of data from its 25 May test flight of its Electron rocket. The review found the launch had to be terminated due to an independent contractor’s ground equipment issue, rather than an issue with the rocket.

China’s Xinhua news agency said that the launch of the country’s latest heavy-lift carrier rocket, the Chang Zheng-5 Y2, was unsuccessful. The report stated that “Abnormity was detected during the flight of the rocket, which blasted off at [1123 UTC on 2 July] from Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern province of Hainan. Further investigation will be carried out.”

The story of the recently failed AMC-9 satellite got another twist over the weekend as it became known that the spacecraft was accompanied by several pieces of debris. It is unknown whether these pieces were shed by the satellite or whether they are of a different origin. Meanwhile, satellite operator said it hat made some contact with AMC-9 but wouldn’t confirm it was in full control of the spacecraft.

China’s Zhongxing-9A [ChinaSat 9A] communications satellite, launched atop a Chang Zheng 3B rocket, did not reach its planned orbital destination on 18 June. The rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 1611 UTC.

SES announced that, following a significant anomaly, the company is in the process of transferring capacity from its AMC-9 satellite.