Satellite News

Rocket: Chang Zheng 2D; Payload: Zhangheng-1 [China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-1)] plus six piggyback satellites; Date: 2 February 2018, 0751 UTC; Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China. All satellites were successfully deployed into their target orbit.

Rocket: SS 520 No. 5; Payload: TRICOM 1R; Date: 3 February 2018, 0503 UTC; Launch site: Uchinoura Space Center, Japan. The rocket about the size of a utility pole, measuring 10 meters in length and 50 centimeters in diameter, delivered its payload to its intended orbit, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne have cleared a significant milestone toward the first crewed flight of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) with the latest successful test firing of an RS-25 engine, which powers the heavy-lift rocket’s first stage.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded the project “Study on Launch Service Making Use of a Microlauncher” to the Spanish company PLD Space. The microlauncher study, a part of the ESA’s Future Launcher Preparatory Programme, will refine the definition of the European small satellite launcher project proposed by PLD Space, named ARION 2.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: GovSat 1 [SES 16]; Date: 31 January 2018, 2225 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The satellite was placed in a supersynchronous transfer orbit. There were no plans to recover the rocket’s first stage.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: GovSat 1 [SES 16]; Date: 31 January 2018, 2225 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The satellite was placed in a supersynchronous transfer orbit. There were no plans to recover the rocket’s first stage.

SpaceX has called off the launch of LuxGovSat S.A.’s GovSat 1 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to replace a sensor on the upper stage of the Falcon 9 launcher.

The first flight of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy is planned for 6 February between 1830 and 2130 UTC, the company’s founder and CEO Elon Musk said.