Satellite News

Ariane 5 is on the move as launcher and payload preparations continue in French Guiana for Arianespace’s upcoming dual-passenger mission at the service of Intelsat, DirecTV and ARSAT.

COM DEV International Ltd. announced that it has signed a contract with the Antrix Corporation (the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation) to launch the M3M satellite on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from India in 2015.

A new GLONASS navigation satellite will be launched at the end of this year, Information Satellite Systems Reshetnev announced.

Last night, United Launch Alliance (ULA) rolled the Delta IV Heavy rocket from its processing facility to Space Launch Complex 37 in advance of the 4 December Exploration Flight Test (EFT-1) for NASA’s Orion spacecraft.

NASA and ATK successfully completed a static test of the launch abort motor igniter for the Orion crew capsule’s Launch Abort System (LAS). Conducted at ATK’s facility in Promontory, Utah, this test is the next step toward qualifying the igniter for production.

Aerojet Rocketdyne announced that it submitted a formal response to the U.S. Air Force’s Request for Information on options for future booster propulsion and launch systems that could be used as alternatives to foreign-supplied RD-180 engines.

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announced a design for an integrated system for human spaceflight that can be launched to low Earth orbit (LEO) using Stratolaunch System’s air launch architecture and a scale version of SNC’s Dream Chaser spacecraft.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) decided to launch the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 26 (H-IIA F26) with the Asteroid Explorer “Hayabusa 2″ onboard on 30 November.