Satellite News

Rocket: Soyuz ST-B; Payload: four O3b satellites; Date: 10 July 2014, 1856 UTC; Launch site: Sinnamary, French Guiana. After the successful 2 hour, 22 minute mission ground controllers established contact with all four satellites launched.

Orbital announced that the launch of Antares for the Orb-2 Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station has been rescheduled for Saturday, 12 July at 1714 UTC.

The Planetary Society announced that its LightSail solar sail spacecraft will reach space on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch in 2016.

Russia has launched the first Angara rocket from the Plesetsk military cosmodrome. It is the first rocket designed in Russia from a scratch since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Development had started in 1992.

Arianespace’s second Soyuz launch at the service of O3b Networks has been approved for lift-off tomorrow from the Spaceport in French Guiana.

Aerojet Rocketdyne has completed a study with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. to develop a common upper stage service for NASA, designed to enhance the performance of the NASA Launch Services (NLS) II medium and heavy launch vehicles for planetary and heliophysics missions, and pave the way for additional missions by providing more affordable launch services.

Rocket: Soyuz 2-1B/Fregat; Payload: Meteor-M2, six secondary satellites; Date: 8 July 2014, 1558 UTC, Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The The Meteor-M2 weather satellite was released into a near-polar, Sun-synchronous orbit.

The Soyuz for Arianespace’s next medium-lift mission has arrived at the launch zone in French Guiana, where it stands ready to receive the four satellite passengers that will join O3b Networks’ high-speed connectivity system.