Satellite News

OHB Italia Spa and Arianespace announced the signature of the launch contract for the Italian Space Agency’s PRISMA (PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa) satellite. [Not to be confused with a Swedish satellite named Prisma that was launched in 2010.–Ed.]

SpaceX said the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket with BulgariaSat-1 aboard, previously scheduled for today, was delayed to no earlier than 23 June.

Orbital ATK, along with NASA and Lockheed Martin, successfully performed a ground firing test of the abort motor for NASA’s Orion spacecraft Launch Abort System (LAS) at Orbital ATK’s facility in Promontory, Utah.

Rocket: Soyuz 2.1a; Payload: Progress MS-06 [ISS Progress 67]; Date: 15 June 2017, 0920:13 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The Progress transport cargo vehicle was successfully put into low Earth orbit and is headed for the International Space Station (ISS).

The last launch of Russia’s light-class Rokot carrier rocket will take place early next year, Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center said.

The Russian space industry will continue paying enhanced attention to the quality of products manufactured by the Voronezh Mechanical Plant, despite the successful launch of a Proton carrier rocket, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin was quoted as saying.

NanoRacks said it successfully deployed four Spire LEMUR-2 CubeSats from Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft at a nearly 500-kilometer orbit.

Rocket: Proton M/Briz M; Payload: EchoStar XXI; Date: 8 June 2017, 0345:47 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The EchoStar XXI/Briz M upper stage separation occurred 9 hours 13 minutes after lift-off. The separated spacecraft mass was approximately 6900 kg.