Satellite News

NASA has selected Boeing and SpaceX to transport U.S. crews to and from the space station using their CST-100 and Crew Dragon spacecraft, respectively, with a goal of ending the United States’ sole reliance on Russia in 2017.

The fourth SpaceX cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract is scheduled to launch Saturday, 20 September from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Payload preparations for Arianespace’s next Ariane 5 flight are moving into their full pace with delivery of the mission’s other passenger – ISDLA-1 – to French Guiana, where it joins the ARSAT-1 satellite that arrived earlier this month.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) said it will support the United States Air Force’s Request for Information (RFI) for a new national engine and that it is finalising details related to developing its own next generation, first-stage American engine with a U.S. aerospace partner.

Rocket: Ariane 5 ECA; Payload: Measat 3b, Optus 10; Date: 11 September 2014, 2205 UTC; Launch site: Kourou, French Guiana. Confirmation from on-board telemetry systems indicated that Measat 3b and Optus 10 were separated from the upper stage as planned.

Yang Liwei, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency, said that infrastructure construction on the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in the southern island province of Hainan has been completed and that the station will soon become operational.

Indonesian operator PT Telkom has chosen Arianespace to launch its Telkom-3S satellite, as part of a turnkey contract with Thales Alenia Space.

Sky Perfect JSAT Corporation has concluded a contract for a launch service for its JCSAT-16 communications satellite with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).