Satellite News

The DLR German Aerospace Center, OHB SE and Arianespace have announced the signing of a launch contract for Germany’s Heinrich Hertz (H2Sat) technology demonstrator satellite built by OHB System AG.

Prometheus is a European demonstrator for a very low cost reusable engine, running on liquid oxygen (LOx) and methane. It is the precursor for future European launcher engines as of 2030.

Aerojet Rocketdyne and NASA completed hot-fire testing of an RS-25 rocket engine containing its largest additively manufactured component to date.

Vector, a nanosatellite launch company, announced that it will join forces with Astro Digital to conduct a dedicated launch in 2018 featuring one of Astro Digital’s satellites for remote sensing applications.

Rocket: Ariane 5 ES; Payload: Galileo 19-22; Date: 12 December 2017, 1836 UTC; Launch site: Korou, French Guiana. The rocket successfully deployed its four passengers during a mission lasting 3 hours, 55 minutes.

The twin GRACE-FO satellites have now set off on their journey to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Together with test equipment totalling around 45 tonnes, the gravity research satellites built and developed by Airbus in Friedrichshafen (Germany) were loaded overnight onto an air freighter at Munich airport and flown to the USA.

The ULA Delta IV rocket carrying the NROL-47 payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office is delayed in order to perform additional validation of the software and systems associated with Common Avionics.

L3 Technologies has entered into an agreement with United Launch Alliance (ULA) to become the exclusive provider of avionics and related services for its new Vulcan Centaur rocket system, delivering an estimated US$1 billion-plus in mission-critical systems and services, over a 10-year period.