Satellite News

LISA Pathfinder, ESA’s gravitational-wave detection technology demonstrator, is ready to be shipped to Kourou in French Guiana in preparation for its launch in November. Airbus Defence and Space, the world’s second largest space company, has completed a series of intensive tests on LISA Pathfinder’s propulsion and science modules at IABG, near Munich, to prove its space worthiness.

The launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the fourth Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite for the U.S. Navy, has been rescheduled for 2 September.

An International Launch Services (ILS) Proton Briz M successfully placed the Inmarsat-5 F3 (I-5 F3) satellite into a super-synchronous transfer orbit (SSTO) today.

The launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the MUOS-4 mission has been postponed due to uncertainty in the weather conditions associated with Tropical Storm Erika.

Rocket: Proton M/Briz M; Payload: Inmarsat 5-F3; Date: 28 August, 1144 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The rocket lifted off as planned, and at the time of writing this the Briz M upper stage had successfully completed the second of five burns.

The U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin are ready to launch the fourth Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) secure communications satellite, MUOS-4, here on Monday, 31 August aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The launch window is between 1007 and 1051 UTC.

NASA has completed the first developmental test series on the RS-25 engines that will power the agency’s new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

Rocket: GSLV-D6; Payload: GSAT-6; Date: 27 August 2015, 1122 UTC; Launch site: Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, India. Seventeen minutes after lift-off, the satellite was successfully placed into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) very close to the intended one.