Satellite News

Orbital ATK has unveiled plans for a new rocket to compete against United Launch Alliance and Space Exploration Technologies for missions to launch U.S. military and commercial satellites.

GKN Aerospace will develop and manufacture advanced rocket engine sub-systems for the Ariane 6 launch vehicle, under the prime contractorship of Airbus Safran Launchers, after securing major new contracts.

Rocket: Soyuz ST-B/Fregat MT; Payload: Galileo 13 and 14; Date: 24 May 2016, 0848 UTC; Launch site: Sinnamary, French Guiana. After a nearly 3-hour, 48-minute mission, the upper stage placed the Galileo passengers into a targeted circular orbit at an altitude of 23,522 km, inclined 57.394 degrees to the equator. Total payload lift performance was estimated at 1,599 kg.

Rocket: Soyuz ST-B/Fregat MT; Payload: Galileo 13 and 14; Date: 24 May 2016, 0848 UTC; Launch site: Sinnamary, French Guiana. After a nearly 3-hour, 48-minute mission, the upper stage placed the Galileo passengers into a targeted circular orbit at an altitude of 23,522 km, inclined 57.394 degrees to the equator. Total payload lift performance was estimated at 1,599 kg.

On 23 May 2016, ISRO successfully flight tested India’s first winged body aerospace vehicle operating in hypersonic flight regime.

An uncrewed SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, carrying crew supplies and station hardware, will lift off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), adjacent to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Lift-off is scheduled for 16 July at 0532 UTC.

NASA’s first spacecraft designed to return a piece of an asteroid to Earth arrived Friday, 20 May at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and has begun final preparations in advance of its September launch.

Arianespace announced that it has signed a contract with satellite Internet company OneWeb to design, qualify and supply 21 payload dispensers for the deployment of the OneWeb constellation, along with five more on option.