Satellite News

Rocket: Soyuz 2-1A (no upper stage); Payload: Bars-M No. 2; Date: 24 March 2016, 0942 UTC; Launch site: Plesetsk, Russia. The governmental spacecraft was accurately placed on the target orbit of 326 km x 538 km x 97,6 degrees.

A Geo-IK-2 geodetic satellite of the Russian defence ministry is scheduled to be launched in May 2016, the Izvestia daily said citing Nikolai Testoyedov, the director general and general designer of Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully completed the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for the Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle with dual Blue Origin BE-4 engines.

Rocket: Atlas V 401/Centaur; Payload: OA-6/Cygnus; Date: 23 March 2016; Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. Approximately 21 minutes after lift-off, the spacecraft successfully separated from the Centaur upper stage at its initial orbit, approximately 230 km above the Earth, inclined at 51.6 degrees to the equator.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. has received an order for H-IIA launch services from the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for launch of the Emirates Mars Mission’s (EMM) Hope spacecraft.

The Vostochny spaceport has begun comprehensive tests of the launch site, and a Soyuz launch vehicle’s dry rollout has been practised, Roskosmos head Igor Komarov told reporters.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 will launch Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft on the initial leg of its cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The 30-minute launch window opens at approximately 0305 UTC on 23 March .

Components for another of Arianespace’s up-to-eight planned Ariane 5 launches in 2016 are now at the Spaceport in French Guiana, following their delivery from Europe this week.