Satellite News

Rocket: PSLV-C33; Payload: IRNSS-1G; Date: 28 April 2016, 0720 UTC; Launch site: Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, India. IRNSS-1G, the seventh satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) was deployed into a Sub-Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (Sub-GTO).

Russia’s first upgraded Proton-M rocket may be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 28 May, a space industry source was quoted as saying by Novosti.

The U.S. Air Force announced the award of the first competitively sourced National Security Space (NSS) launch services contract in more than a decade. Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) was awarded a contract for Global Positioning System (GPS) III Launch Services – by default as its competitor ULA did not bid for the contract.

The first rocket launch from Russian cosmodrome Vostochny, which has been plagued by construction delays and mishaps, was postponed by a day, the space agency Roskosmos said.

Arianespace’s third flight of 2016 has successfully orbited five European satellites of varying sizes into three different low Earth orbits during a mission lasting four hours.

The 51.30 hour countdown for the 28 April launch of the country’s seventh and final navigation satellite, IRNSS-1G, on board Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C33 from the spaceport of Sriharikota began today.

Rocket: Soyuz 2-1.a/Fregat; Payload: Sentinel-1B, Microscope, three cubesats; Date: 25 April 2016, 2102 UTC; Launch site: Sinnamary, French Guiana. The main payload, Sentinel-1B, separated from the upper stage after approx. 24 minutes as planned. Deployment of the other payloads was expected several hours into the flight (too late for this issue).

A Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket has been installed at Russia’s new Vostochny Cosmodrome’s launch site ahead of its first space launch, Russia’s Federal Space Agency Roskosmos said in a statement.