Satellite News

Rocket: Artiane 5 ECA; Payload: Star One D1, JCSAT-15; Date: 21 December 2016, 2030 UTC; Launch site: Kourou, French Guiana. This was the 11th and final launch of the year for Arianespace, the seventh with Ariane 5 in 2016, as well as the heavy-lift launcher’s 76th consecutive success and its 90th launch overall.

Rocket: Epsilon-2; Payload: Exploration of energisation and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) “ARASE”; Date: 20 December 2016, 1100 UTC; Launch site: Uchinoura Space Center, Japan. The launch vehicle flew as planned, and at approximately 13 minutes and 27 seconds after lift-off, the separation of ERG was confirmed.

Rocket: Atlas V 431; Payload: EchoStar XIX (aka Jupiter 2); Date: 18 December 2016, 1913 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. EchoStar XIX deployed its solar arrays on schedule and is successfully performing post-launch manoeuvres according to plan.

Millennium Space Systems said it has completed the development of and shipped its first ALTAIR satellite, a pre-production pathfinder spacecraft designed to demonstrate advanced avionics, guidance & control, additive manufacturing, power systems, RF communications and onboard processing technologies.

Vector Space Systems, a micro satellite space launch company , announced the successful test of its first stage 5K-lbf [22 kN] engine of the Vector-R launch vehicle.

Rocket: Pegasus XL; Payload: eight CYGNSS satellites; Date: 15 December 2016, 1337 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. For the first phase of the launch, CYGNSS and the Pegasus rocket were carried into the atmosphere beneath Orbital ATK’s “Stargazer” L-1011 carrier aircraft. They were released from the plane at approximately 11.7 km, and then the Pegasus motors ignited, carrying CYGNSS to its intended 35 degree orbit.

The CYGNSS launch planned for Wednesday, 14 December was delayed one day due to an issue with flight parameter data used by spacecraft software.

Final integration has begun for Arianespace’s year-ending Ariane 5 mission as the Star One D1 and JCSAT-15 satellites are installed on the heavy-lift launcher for lift-off from the Spaceport in French Guiana on 21 December.