Satellite News

For its eighth launch of the year, and the second Soyuz lift-off from the Guiana Space Center (CSG) in French Guiana in 2018, Arianespace will orbit MetOp-C for EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites.

Experts at the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan will dismantle the four strap-on boosters of the Soyuz-FG carrier rocket, which is scheduled for launch in November, and re-inspect them in order to avoid launch failures like that on 11 October, a Baikonur source was quoted as saying.

Aerojet Rocketdyne recently completed qualification testing for the enhanced reaction control thruster system for NASA’s Orion crew vehicle, helping to clear the way for the Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft’s second test flight, and first mission to cislunar space, called Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1).

Rocket: H-IIA; Payload: “IBUKI-2” (GOSAT-2), KhalifaSat; Date: 29 October 2018, 0408 UTC; Launch site: Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. The launch and flight of H-IIA F40 proceeded as planned.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 2C;M Payload: CFOSAT (China-France Oceanography Satellite), seven secondary payloads; Time: 29 October 2018, oo43 UTC; Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China. CFOSat’s solar array deployed successfully 32 minutes later.

Rocket Lab has signed a contract with Internet of Things (IoT) start-up Fleet Space Technologies to launch two satellites that will form the foundation of a global IoT communications constellation.

Rocket: Soyuz-2.1b; Payload: Lotos-S1 [Kosmos 2528]; Date: 25 October 2018, 0015 UTC; Launch site: Plesetsk, Russia. The launch of the rocket and the deployment of the spacecraft into the calculated orbit took place in the normal mode, Roskosmos said.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 4B; Payload: Haiyang-2B [HY-2B]; Date: 24 October 2018, 2257 UTC; Launch site: Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China. Officials said the launch was successful.