Satellite News

The first 2016 delivery of an Ariane 5 to French Guiana has occurred, with elements of the heavy-lift vehicle arriving for an early March launch of Eutelsat’s Eutelsat 65 West relay satellite.

Build-up of the initial Ariane 5 to be launched in 2016 has begun at the Spaceport in French Guiana. With lift-off scheduled on 27 January, the Ariane 5 is to loft Intelsat 29e – the first of the Intelsat EpicNG high throughput satellites.

Aerojet Rocketdyne, a subsidiary of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc., received a US$6 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to define the standards that will be used to qualify additively manufactured components for use in liquid-fuelled rocket engine applications.

Arianespace said it expects sales to have surpassed EUR1.4 billion in 2015, the highest total in its history. The company also announced two new launch service contracts to start the year.

All the seven satellites of Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) are expected to be in orbit by March 2016, according to a top Indian Space Research Organisation official.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 3B/G2; Payload: Gaofen-4 (GF-4); Date: 28 December 2015, 1605 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. The geostationary remote sensing satellite was placed in a 205 km x 35,806 km x 23 degrees transfer orbit.

The launch and flight of a Proton-M launch vehicle carrying the Russian communications satellite Ekspress-AMU1 proceeded nominally. At the design time, the orbital block comprising the Ekspress-AMU1 SC and Briz-M upper stage separated from the Proton’s Stage III and continued the mission in the autonomous mode. Subsequently, the spacecraft was injected in its 4,324 km x 35,769 km x 22 degrees target orbit using the Briz-M upper stage main engine.

Rocket: Proton M/Briz M; Payload: Ekspress AMU1 (aka Eutelsat 36C); Date: 24 December 2015, 2131 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The rocket lifted off after a 24-hour delay caused by high winds.