Satellite News

The European Space Agency (ESA) awarded D-Orbit SpA with a contract for the development of a precise in-orbit CubeSat deployer.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 3B; Payload: Zhongxing-2D [ChinaSat-2D]; Date: 10 January 2019, 1711 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, China. People’s Liberation Army Daily, a military newspaper, confirmed the payload’s delivery into geostationary transfer orbit 70 minutes later.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: 10 Iridium NEXT satellites; Date: 11 January 2019, 1531 UTC; Launch site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA. Falcon 9’s first stage delivered the second stage to its targeted orbit followed by deployment of all 10 Iridium NEXT satellites approximately 1 hour and 12 minutes after launch.

Building on operational success in 2018, payload preparations for Arianespace’s first flight in the new year are moving ahead with this week’s delivery of the mission’s second satellite, GSAT-31, to French Guiana – joining the Saudi Geostationary Satellite 1/Hellas Sat 4 (HS-4/SGS-1), which arrived earlier in January.

The launch of Russia’s Progress MS-11 to the ISS has been rescheduled to 4 April, a space industry source was quoted as saying.

The launch date for the NORL-71 mission to be flown aboard a ULA Delta IV Heavy from Vandenberg Air Force Base is still under review.

Russia plans to launch rockets produced by enterprises of Roskosmos 45 times in 2019, a two-fold increase compared with 2018, a source in the aerospace industry was quoted as saying.

NanoRacks has signed its first customer contract for a small satellite rideshare on the India Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).