Satellite News

Rocket: Ariane 5 ES; Payload: four Galileo satellites; Date: 27 July 2018, 1125 UTC; Launch site: Kourou, French Guiana. The Ariane 5 deployed its four passengers during a mission lasting approximately 3 hours, 56 minutes.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: Iridium NEXT 7 (10 satellites); Date: 25 July 2018, 1139 UTC; Launch site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA. This was the seventh set of satellites in a series of 75 total satellites that SpaceX will launch for Iridium’s next generation global satellite constellation, Iridium NEXT. The satellites began deployment about an hour after launch.

NASA and its mission partners are now targeting 11 August for the launch of the Parker Solar Probe mission to the Sun.

SSL announced the advanced high throughput satellite built for Telesat is successfully performing post-launch manoeuvres according to plan. The SSL-built satellite deployed its solar arrays on schedule following its launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida early Sunday morning. It began firing its main thruster earlier today to propel toward its final geostationary orbit.

Russia has begun work on a new Soyuz-5 carrier rocket, chief of Russia’s state space corporation Dmitry Rogozin was quoted as saying. The process would “mobilise all space industry, refresh it and utilise our strong development and production capabilities.”

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: Telstar 19 VANTAGE [Telstar 19V]; Date: 22 July 2018, 0550 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The satellite was deployed approximately 32 minutes after lift-off.

Next week’s Arianespace flight with four European Galileo navigation spacecraft has been approved for lift-off on 25 July following the launch readiness review held at the Spaceport in French Guiana.

The serial production of Angara rockets will begin from 2023 at the Polyot Production Association in the West Siberian city of Omsk from 2023, CEO of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roskosmos Dmitry Rogozin said.