Satellite News

Orbital ATK recently completed a qualification test of the avionics system for the solid rocket boosters the company has developed and is now manufacturing for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS).

The attempt to launch Intelsat 37e and BSAT-4a aboard an Ariane 5 was aborted shortly after the ignition of the rocket’s Vulcain main engine. A new launch date was not immediately available.

The launch of JPSS-1, the first in a series of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s four next-generation operational polar-orbiting weather satellites, is scheduled for 10 November at 0947 UTC aboard a Delta 2 (!) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Kacific Broadband Satellites Group (Kacific) said it selected SpaceX as the launch provider for its Kacific-1 satellite, which is being built by The Boeing Company. Kacific-1 [which is actually one of two payloads aboard a condo satellite shared with Japan’s Sky Perfect JSAT] will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9.

The U.S. Defense Department will have to continue using Russian RD-180 rocket engines until the mid-2020s, which is longer than it had initially been expected, U.S. media reported.

Arianespace’s fifth Ariane 5 mission of 2017 has been given the “green light” for lift-off on 5 September following a successful launch readiness review, which was conducted at the Spaceport in French Guiana.

The U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office is undergoing final launch preparations for the fifth mission of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle. The OTV is scheduled to launch on 7 September 2017, onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

China’s Kuaizhou-11 solid-fuelled carrier rocket will send six satellites into space in its first mission, according to the rocket’s developer and producer China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC).