Satellite News

ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C26, successfully launched IRNSS-1C, the third satellite in the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. It was the twenty seventh consecutively successful mission of PSLV. The ‘XL’ configuration of PSLV was used for this mission. Previously, the same configuration of the vehicle was successfully used six times.

Due to the impending arrival of Hurricane Gonzalo on the island of Bermuda, where an essential tracking site used to ensure public safety during Antares launches is located, the previously announced “no earlier than” (NET) launch date of 24 October for the Orb-3 CRS mission to the International Space Station for NASA is no longer feasible.

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) spacecraft arrived Wednesday at its launch site on California’s central coast after travelling from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. The spacecraft will undergo final tests and then be integrated on top of a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket in preparation for a planned launch on 29 January 2015.

Rocket: PSLV-C26 (XL); Payload: IRNSS-1C; Date: 15 October 2014, 2002 UTC; Launch site: Satish Dhawan Space Center, India. The satellite was deployed into its target orbit 21 minutes after lift-off. The mission used the largest version of the PSLV with six strap-on boosters.

Basic build-up of the Ariane 5 for Arianespace’s sixth heavy-lift flight of 2014 is complete for a mission scheduled from French Guiana in early December with two geostationary orbit relay satellites.

Preparations for Arianespace’s sixth Ariane 5 mission in 2014 are gearing up with two separate milestones marked this week in French Guiana: arrival of one of the flight’s two satellite passengers – DirecTV-14 – and the assembly start-up for its heavy-lift launcher.

The next Soyuz rocket lifting off from French Guiana will reportedly carry four O3b satellites and not, as previously planned, two Galileo spacecraft.

Preparations for the third landing of the X-37B, the U.S. Air Force’s unmanned, reusable space plane, are underway at Vandenberg Air Force Base.