Satellite News

China’s new-generation Chang Zheng-7 rocket departed for its launch base in Hainan on Sunday from north China’s port of Tianjin.

Orbital ATK has completed installing the second Space Launch System (SLS) booster qualification motor, QM-2, in a specialised test stand in Utah in preparation for a static-fire test on 28 June. The first qualification motor, QM-1, completed a successful test last spring.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: JCSAT-14 [JCSAT-2B]; Date: 6 May 2016, 0521 UTC; Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The payload was released into a 188 km x 35,956 km x 23.7 degrees geostationary transfer orbit 32 minutes after lift-off.

SpaceX has delayed the launch of the Japanese JCSAT-14 communication satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station by a day because it anticipates inclement weather.

The EchoStar 18 satellite for Arianespace’s next dual-passenger Ariane 5 mission, currently scheduled for June, is undergoing its pre-launch checkout at the Spaceport for a June lift-off from French Guiana.

A full-scale, test version of the booster for NASA’s new rocket, the Space Launch System, will fire up for the second of two qualification ground tests on 28 June at prime contractor Orbital ATK’s test facility in Promontory, Utah.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued reprimands to Roskosmos head Igor Komarov and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the country’s space industry, for the delay in launching the first rocket from the newly-built Vostochny Cosmodrome, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed.

Rocket: Soyuz 2-1a/Volga; Payload: Mikhailo V. Lomonosov [MLV-300], Aist-2D and SamSat-2018 [Kontakt-NS]; Date: 28 April 2016, 0201 UTC; Launch site: Vostochny, Russia. The separation of spacecraft was completed normally at 0407 UTC. Normal separation was confirmed during a communications session at 0505 UTC. Contact has been established with the satellites.