Satellite News

The U.S. Air Force, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and United Launch Alliance (ULA) team have successfully moved one step closer to the launching of the 19th Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) block 5D weather satellite. On 14 March engineers completed spacecraft encapsulation within the launch fairing at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

Rocket: Proton M/Briz M; Payload: Ekspress-AT1, Ekspress-AT2; Date: 15 March 2014, 2308 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The Ekspress-AT1 spacecraft separated from the Khrunichev-built vehicle at 0810 UTC on 16 March, and 18 minutes later the nominal separation of Ekspress-AT2 from the upper stage took place.

The Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) confirmed that the launch of the Cbers-4 satellite, developed in co-operation with China, is expected to take place in the first half of December.

The launch of Kazakhstan’s telecommunications satellite KazSat-3 is scheduled for 28 April (possibly 27 April UTC) of this year, according to the Chairman of Kazakh National Space Agency Kazkosmos, Talgat Musabayev .

Planet Labs announced that it has confirmed launches for more than 100 satellites over the next 12 months. The satellites will launch on rockets from the USA and Russia. This constitutes the largest constellation of satellites manifested in history.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) decided to launch the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 24 (H-IIA F24) with the Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2) onboard on 24 May.

SpaceX said it was now targeting 30 March for the CRS-3 launch, with April second as a back-up. These represent the earliest available launch opportunities given existing schedules, and are currently pending approval with the Range.

The Astra 5B satellite, one of two passengers for Arianespace’s next Ariane 5 mission, has been delivered to the Guiana Space Center’s Final Assembly Building.