Satellite News

Avio and Europropulsion have signed in Paris a supply contract for the coming 4 years for the final Ariane 5 production lot.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: PAZ, Microsat-2a, Microsat-2b; Date: 22 February 2018, 1417 UTC; Launch site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA. Ten minutes after launch, the PAZ satellite separated from the launcher and will soon be positioned at its 514 km orbit.

SpaceX called off an attempted launch of its Falcon 9 rocket due to strong high-altitude winds. The Falcon 9 launcher was scheduled to lift off at 1417 UTC from Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA.

Aerojet Rocketdyne and NASA have powered up the RS-25 main engine for the agency’s heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) to its highest thrust levels yet.

On 16 February 2018, standalone check-outs of the Soyuz-ST-B LV Control System began in the Guiana Space Center as part of the O3b launch campaign which is to result in orbital injection of the four European telecommunication satellites.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) newest weather satellite, Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S), is scheduled to launch on 1 March.

SpaceX has pushed back the launch of a Spanish radar observation satellite from California from Sunday until 21 February.

The re-ignitable Vinci engine, which will power the upper stage of the Ariane 6 launcher, has now successfully completed its last two subsystems qualification campaigns (M6 and M7) with 140 engine tests conducted.