Satellite News

Rocket: Soyuz-U; Payload: Progress M-26M [Progress 58]; Date: 17 February 2015, 1100 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The uncrewed cargo spacecraft docked with the International Space Station six hours after lift-off.

Falcon 9 lifted off from SpaceX’s Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. on 11 February 2015 at 2303 UTC carrying the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite on SpaceX’s first deep space mission.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: DSCOVR; Date: 11 February 2015, 2303 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The satellite was to be separated roughly 30 minutes after lift-off (too late for this issue).

Rocket: Vega; Payload: IXV; Date: 11 February 2015, 1340 UTC; Launch site: Kourou, French Guiana. ESA’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle flew a flawless reentry and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean just west of the Galapagos islands.

SpaceX’s Dragon cargo spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean about 0044 UTC 414 km southwest of Long Beach, California, with nearly 1,665 kg of NASA cargo, science and first-of-its-kind technology demonstration samples from the International Space Station.

The lightweight Vega member of Arianespace’s launch vehicle family has been given the “all clear” for lift-off on 11 February with its European Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) payload.

1Arianespace has ordered six more Soyuz-ST carrier rockets for launches from the Kourou space centre in French Guiana in the next four years, Alexander Kirilin, CEO of the Progress Rocket and Space Center in Samara, was quoted as saying by TASS.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. reportedly secured leasing rights to the first-ever “landing pad” at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.