Satellite News

The first spacecraft for Europe’s Copernicus Earth observation programme – Sentinel-1A – is now undergoing pre-launch checkout, readying it for lift-off on Arianespace’s next Soyuz flight from French Guiana on 3 April.

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) launched aboard a Japanese H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima Space Center on Tanegashima Island in southern Japan. The GPM spacecraft separated from the rocket 16 minutes after launch, at an altitude of 398 kilometers. The solar arrays deployed 10 minutes after spacecraft separation, to power the spacecraft.

NASA’s aerospace industry partners continue to meet milestones under agreements with the agency’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP), as they move forward in their development of spacecraft and rockets that will transport humans to destinations in low-Earth orbit.

Rocket: H-IIA; Payload: Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory, plus seven small secondary satellites; Date: 27 February 2014, 1837 UTC; Launch site: Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. GPM was successfully deployed into its target orbit and has meanwhile unfolded its solar arrays.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said it is making final preparations towards the development of a new flagship launch vehicle from Japan Fiscal Year (JFY) 2014.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have set the launch time and launch window for the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 23 (H-IIA F23) with the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core observatory onboard.

The U.WS. Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center has determined that the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation’s (SpaceX) on 29 September 2013 launch of its Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle will count toward SpaceX’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) certification.

The checks on the Amazonas 4A satellite are proceeding nominally, enabling Arianespace to announce the launch date for the Astra 5B and Amazonas 4A satellites.