Satellite News

Rocket: Soyuz 2-1A; Payload: Bars-M No.1L [Kosmos 2503(?)]; Date: 27 February 2015, 1101 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The governmental spacecraft was accurately placed on the target orbit. This was the second Soyuz family mission in 2015.

The TurkmenAlem52E/MonacoSAT telecommunications satellite was shipped from Thales Alenia Space’s Cannes plant on 23 February 2015, arriving at the Cape Canaveral launch site in Florida on 26 February. Built by Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor, on behalf of the Turkmenistan Ministry of Communications, the satellite will be orbited in March 2015 by a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher.

Final preparations are underway for the launch of NASA’s quartet of Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft, which constitute the first space mission dedicated to the study of magnetic reconnection. This fundamental process occurs throughout the universe where magnetic fields connect and disconnect with an explosive release of energy.

SES announced an agreement with SpaceX to launch two new satellites in 2017 – SES-14 and SES-16/ GovSat – using the Falcon 9 rocket.

Khrunichev Space Center (Khrunichev) and OAO Gazprom Space Systems (GSS) have signed a number of documents envisaging expanded strategic co-operation between the two companies, starting with the launch of Yamal 601.

Aerojet Rocketdyne was awarded a contract to research and develop environmentally sustainable monopropellants and gas generators for rocket and missile propulsion and Divert Attitude Control Systems.

For the first time in Europe, an experiment studying the behaviour of liquid hydrogen in microgravity was carried out in space, the Swedish Space Corporation said.

Moog’s Dublin facility, part of the Moog Inc. Space and Defense Group, announced the commencement of a European Space Agency (ESA) technology transfer programme to protect spacecraft by reducing harsh vibration experienced during launches.