Satellite News

ISRO on 19 February successfully hot tested its ‘Cryo CE 20’ Engine for a flight duration of 640 seconds, with the space agency Chairman A. S. KiranKumar describing the feat as a “phenomenal achievement in the shortest time.”

The preparations for Arianespace’s second Ariane 5 launch of 2016 are continuing for a lift-off on 9 March from French Guiana, with the heavy-lift vehicle now transferred to the Spaceport’s Final Assembly Building, and its Eutelsat 65 West A satellite payload undergoing its fuelling.

The Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft has departed from the International Space Station.

Rocket: H-IIA; Payload: ASTRO-H “Hitomi”, Horyu-4, ChubuSat 2, ChubuSat 3; Date: 17 February 2016, 0845 UTC; Launch site: Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. The launch vehicle flew as planned, and at approximately 14 minutes and 15 seconds after lift-off, the separation of ASTRO-H into a 551 km x 579 km x 31 degrees orbit was confirmed. The satellite has deployed its solar array paddles and is in good health.

Rocket: Rokot/Briz-KM; Payload: Sentinel-3A; Date: 16 February 2016, 1757 UTC; Launch site: Plesetsk, Russia. The launch vehicle orbited Sentinel-3A into an orbit of approx. 815 km altitude and 98.65 degrees. This launch was Eurockot’s first in support of the European Copernicus satellite system.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. said they will reattempt the launch of an H-IIA rocket carrying the X-ray astronomy satellite ASTRO-H on 17 February.

The Proton-M launch vehicle earmarked for the Russian-European ExoMars-2016 mission has been delivered to Baikonur. The Proton-M will orbit the scientific equipment including the Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing demonstrator module (“Schiaparelli”), and the Trace Gas Orbiter module.

JAXA has decided to delay the flight of a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA 204 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center owing to encroaching rough weather. A new launch date of the X-ray Astronomy Satellite (ASTRO-H) has not been announced.