Satellite News

Rocket: PSLV-C23 (‘core alone’ configuration); Payload: SPOT 7, four co-payloads; Date: 30 June 2014, 0422 UTC; Launch site: Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Shriharikota, India. The rocket also carried the 14 kg AISAT of Germany, NLS7.1 (CAN-X4) & NLS7.2 (CAN-X5) of Canada each with a mass of 15 kg, and the 7 kg VELOX-1 of Singapore as co-passengers. All satellites were successfully deployed. ISRO has so far launched 35 satellites from 19 countries worldwide.

Russia put off the maiden launch of its first new space rocket design since Soviet times for a second time on Saturday, 28 June.

The inaugural test launch of Russia’s Angara launcher was cancelled several minutes before takeoff and tentatively delayed until Saturday.

The Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) for the PSLV-C23 mission has cleared the launch on 30 June 2014 from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota.

Ukraine has no plans to suspend the supply of Zenit-3SL launch vehicles for Sea Launch, Yuriy Alekseyev, the head of the Ukrainian State Space Agency, was quoted as saying.

Today, the first integrated launch vehicle of the Angara-1.2 family was transferred to the launch complex at Russia’s MoD State Testing Cosmodrome (Plesetsk Cosmodrome) in the Archangelsk Region. Angara-1.2ML (“Maiden Launch”) was installed on the launch pad.

MT Aerospace AG, a subsidiary of OHB AG, received two contracts from Airbus Defence & Space, Prime Contractor of the Ariane 5 ME launcher development programme, and from the European Space Agency ESA with a total value of EUR62.8 million for respectively the development and further qualification of the metallic propellant tank of the new liquid upper stage of the Ariane 5 Mid-life Evolution (A5 ME), and the related production facilities in Augsburg and Bremen.

Russia would hand a launch complex at Kazakhstan’s Baikonur space centre over to the Central Asian nation next year, a Kazakh official was quoted as saying.