Satellite News

Rocket: Soyuz 2-1.b; Payload: GLONASS-M [Uragan-M No.756]; Date: 16 June 2018, 2146 UTC; Launch site: Plesetsk, Russia. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the navigation satellite reached its designated orbit.

ISRO has cleared GSAT-11 for launch. The satellite was recalled from Kourou in French Guinea for thorough checks. The 5,700-kg GSAT-11 satellite was slated for launch on 26 May aboard an Ariane 5.

NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory are now targeting launch of the agency’s Parker Solar Probe spacecraft no earlier than 4 August 2018.

Iridium Communications Inc. announced that the seventh Iridium NEXT mission has been targeted by SpaceX for launch on 20 July 2018, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Aerojet Rocketdyne said it recently achieved a significant milestone by successfully completing a series of hot-fire tests of an advanced, next-generation RL10 engine thrust chamber design that was built almost entirely using additive manufacturing; commonly known as 3-D printing.

The four Galileo satellites for Arianespace’s next Ariane 5 mission at the service of Europe’s navigation system are coming together in their flight configuration, while parallel preparations continue with the mission’s heavy-lift launcher.

Rocket: H-2A; Payload: IGS Radar 6; Date: 12 June 2018, 0420 UTC; Launch site: Tanegashima Space Center, Japan.

Satellite rideshare and mission management provider Spaceflight has partnered with Rocket Lab for three upcoming launches.