Satellite News

Aerojet Rocketdyne recently demonstrated the highest chamber pressure of any United States produced liquid oxygen and kerosene main combustion system.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: Dragon/CRS-10; Date: 19 February 2017, 1439 UTC; Launch site: Kennedy Space Center, USA. About 2,475 kg of research equipment, cargo and supplies are packed into the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that is now in Earth orbit and headed to the International Space Station.

Arianespace’s third flight of 2017 is moving into the final phase of preparations, with the lightweight Vega launcher’s basic assembly completed and its Sentinel-2B Earth observation satellite encapsulated for lift-off on 6 March from the Spaceport in French Guiana.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully tested its indigenously developed Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) for GSLV MkIII on 17 February 2017.

Rocket Lab delivered its first Electron vehicle to Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 marking the beginning of pre-flight checkouts.

Kepler Communications has contracted Innovative Space Logistics to manifest their first launch on-board an Indian polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV), scheduled to launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in November 2017.

Rocket: PSLV-C37; Payload: Cartosat 2D, INS 1A, INS 1B, Flock-3p 1 to 88, Lemur-2 22 to 29, BGUSat, DIDO 2, PEASSS, Al-Farabi 1, Nayif 1; Date: 15 February 2017, 0358 UTC; Launch site: Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, India. All 104 satellites were successfully deployed.

Iridium Communications Inc. announced it has received a targeted launch date of mid-June for the second mission of ten Iridium NEXT satellites. Originally anticipated for mid-April of 2017, the date has shifted due to a backlog in SpaceX’s launch manifest as a result of last year’s anomaly on 1 September.