Satellite News

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: SAOCOM 1A; Date: 8 October 2018, 0222 UTC UTC; Launch site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA. The satellite was deployed about 12 minutes after lift-off.

Preparations are moving ahead for Arianespace’s next Ariane 5 launch, which will send the BepiColombo spacecraft on its way to the solar system’s smallest and least-explored terrestrial planet: Mercury.

Rocket: Kuaizhou-1A; Payload: Centispace-1-s1; Date: 29 September 2018, 0413 UTC; Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China. About six and a half hours after leaving the pad, the state-run Xinhua press agency confirmed launch success.

Following completion of a competitive procurement, ULA has selected Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine for Vulcan Centaur’s booster stage. The liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuelled booster will be powered by a pair of BE-4 engines, each producing 2.45 MN (550,000 lbf) of sea level thrust.

The U.S. Air Force’s fourth Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF-4) communication satellite was encapsulated on 26 September at Astrotech Space Operations processing facility in Florida.

Norway’s first hybrid rocket to reach space demonstrated new hybrid propulsion technology for a cleaner, safer, more flexible method of powering small launch vehicles.

Arianespace’s on-target mission with Horizons 3e and Azerspace-2/Intelsat 38 marked the milestone 100th flight of a heavy-lift Ariane 5.

Vector announced that the company received a U.S. patent for its enhanced liquid oxygen-propylene rocket engine. Vector is the first and only launch provider to utilise propylene fuel and liquid oxygen (LOX) in an operational launch system.