Satellite News

JAXA said it is pushing back the launch date for the country’s first unmanned moon landing to the second half of fiscal 2019. JAXA informed a panel meeting of the science ministry about the delay. The project was originally due to lift-off in fiscal 2018.

Russia’s newest heavy rocket carrier Angara-A5 will orbit a commercial satellite for the first time in 2016, the head of the Khrunichev Center was quoted as saying.

The launch of the Jason-3 oceanography satellite aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg AFB will not occur on 22 July, as announced previously.

The U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center released a formal solicitation seeking proposals for shared public-private investments in rocket propulsion system prototypes.

The launch of the Soyuz-2.1b rocket with a military satellite, previously scheduled for 5 June, has been indefinitely postponed. It will be carried out only after the investigation of the Progress M-27M cargo spacecraft accident is competed, a rocket and space industry source was quoted as saying by Tass news agency.

The second flight test of NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) now will launch no earlier than 1630 UTC on 2 June from the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) on Kauai, Hawaii.

Another Ariane 5 has completed its initial build-up at the Spaceport in French Guiana, marking a major milestone in preparations for Arianespace’s third heavy-lift mission of 2015 – which will orbit the European MSG-4 meteorological satellite and Brazilian Star One C4 telecommunications relay platform during July.

The Indian cabinet gave its approval for the continuation of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) programme for 15 operational flights (PSLV-C36 to PSLV-C50).