Satellite News

Rocket Lab’s second Electron orbital launch vehicle has arrived at Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula, signalling the beginning of pre-flight checks ahead of Rocket Lab’s second test flight, dubbed ‘Still Testing’.

Rocket: Antares; Payload: Cygnus OA-8; Date: 12 November 2017, 1219 UTC; Launch site: Wallops Flight Facility, USA. Orbital ATK’s eighth contracted cargo delivery flight to the International Space Station is scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station on 14 November.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 3B; Payload: Beidou-3M1 (Beidou-24), Beidou-3M2 (Beidou-25); Date: 5 November 2017, 1145 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. This marked the return to flight of the rocket after a partial launch failure during the Zhongxing-9A (ChinaSat-9A) mission in June.

NASA is preparing to launch the Joint Polar Satellite System-1, or JPSS-1, satellite on behalf of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to provide essential data for timely and accurate weather forecasts and for tracking environmental events such as forest fires and droughts.

The U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center has awarded the Long Duration Propulsive Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Secondary Payload Adapters (ESPA) (LDPE) procurement contract to Orbital Sciences Corp., Space Systems Division for US$34 million.

Orbital ATK announced its commercial Minotaur C rocket successfully launched 10 commercial spacecraft into orbit for Planet.

The U.S. Air Force’s Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) programme completed a major programme milestone on 31 October successfully delivering a Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite Flight-4 to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Rocket: Minotaur-C; Payload: six SkySat Earth Observation Satellites, four Dove CubeSats; Date: 31 October 2017, 2137 UTC; Launch site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA. The rocket lifted off as planned. Confirmation of orbit insertion and payload deployments were not available at the time of writing this.