Satellite News

Payload preparations for Arianespace’s next Ariane 5 launch are now in full swing, with the mission’s two satellite passengers – Eutelsat 8 West B and Intelsat 34 – undergoing checkout procedures at the Spaceport in French Guiana.

Rocket: Soyuz-FG; Payload: Soyuz TMA-17M; Date: 22 July 2015, 2102 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The manned Soyuz capsule reached its target orbit nine minutes after lift-off.

The launch of a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket carrying the WGS-7 mission has been postponed to 24 July (UTC) due to predicted weather conditions and the potential for high winds during the launch countdown.

Space Systems/Loral announced that the Intelsat 34 satellite, designed and built for Intelsat S.A, has arrived at the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, where it will be launched aboard an Ariane 5 launch vehicle by Arianespace. Intelsat 34 is the 50th satellite that SSL has provided to Intelsat.

The U.S. Air Force has scheduled the launch of the seventh Wideband Global SATCOM spacecraft aboard a Delta IV launch vehicle on 23 July between 0007 and 0046 UTC from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

International Launch Services is now actively marketing the Angara 1.2 launch vehicle. The Angara 1.2 vehicle will be available for launch in 2017. Launches will be conducted from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia. Augmented with the heavy-lift Proton vehicle, ILS now has capability to launch the entire range of satellite masses with both vehicles serving the market.

Immediately after the successful launch of MSG-4, Arianespace and EUMETSAT announced the signature of a contract entrusting Arianespace with the first launch services for the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) series of geostationary satellites.

Escape Dynamics, Inc. announced successful tests of their thruster powered by beamed high power microwave energy, with performance greatly surpassing the limit of chemical combustion rockets.