Satellite News

Sky Perfect JSAT Corporation has concluded a contract for a launch service for its JCSAT-14 communications satellite with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).

Arianespace said its “supply pipeline” is supporting the company’s high-activity launch pace planned for 2014, with launcher elements arriving this week in French Guiana for its third flight of the lightweight Vega and another heavy-lift Ariane 5 mission.

Rocket: Antares; Payload: Cygnus/Orb-1; Date: 9 January 2014, 1807 UTC; Launch site: Wallops Flight Facility, USA. Following a 10-minute ascent, the Cygnus spacecraft was successfully deployed by the Antares upper stage and placed into its intended orbit of about 220 x 280 km above the Earth, inclined at 51.6 degrees to the equator.

The flight software and avionics for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) were integrated and powered for testing today at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as part of a milestone known as first light.

Orbital’s Antares launch team has decided to scrub today’s launch attempt due to an unusually high level of space radiation that exceeded by a considerable margin the constraints imposed on the mission to ensure the rocket’s electronic systems are not impacted by a harsh radiation environment.

Orbital Sciences Corporation announced the Thaicom 6 communications satellite, built by the company for Thaicom Plc., was successfully launched into orbit yesterday aboard a Space Exploration Technologies Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Orbital and NASA conducted the Antares Launch Readiness Review (LRR) at the Wallops Flight Facility, resulting in a determination to move forward with the launch tomorrow, 8 January contingent upon successfully completing several outstanding testing actions and data reviews.

Sea Launch AG, through Energia Logistics Ltd., has conducted a Hardware Acceptance Review of the Zenit-2S launch vehicle to be utilised in support of the Eutelsat 3B mission.