Satellite News

Spaceflight announced it will be launching 11 spacecraft in early January 2018 from India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

Rocket: Soyuz-2.1b (no upper stage); Payload: Lotos S1 [Kosmos 2524]; Date: 2 December 2017, 1043 UTC; Launch site: Plesetsk, Russia. “The Soyuz-2.1b carrier at the designated time took successfully to the target orbit the space apparatus for interests of the Russian Defence Ministry. The launch and taking of the apparatus to the orbit went in a regular mode,” the ministry said.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 2D; Payload: Land Survey Satellite-1 (LKW-1, Yaogan Weixing-31); Date: 3 December 2017, 0411 UTC; Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China. State media confirmed success of the launch under an hour later.

Iridium Communications Inc. announced that all 10 Iridium NEXT satellites for its fourth launch are now in processing at SpaceX’s west coast launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The work continues to prepare for launch from the Baikonur launch site the Angosat spacecraft built by RSC Energia (a part of State Corporation Roskosmos) under a contract with the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Angola.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 2C; Payload: three Yaogan Weixing-30-02 satellites; Date: 25 November 2017, 1820 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, China. The satellites have entered the preset orbit and the mission was declared a success.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will try again to launch its SS-520 No. 5 small rocket, carrying a 3-kg microsatellite.

GomX-4B, ESA’s latest and largest technology-testing CubeSat, will be launched from China early next year, together with the near-identical GomX-4A. The pair will test intersatellite communication links and propulsion while orbiting up to 4,500 km apart.