Satellite News

Russia is planning to launch a light-class Rokot rocket with ESA’s three Swarm satellites aboard on 14 November at 1203 UTC.

Rocket: Kuaizhou; Payload: Kuaizhou 1; Date: 25 September 2013, 0437 UTC; Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China. According to Chinese media, the launch was successful.

Rocket: Soyuz-U; Payload: Soyuz TMA-10M; Date: 25 September 2013, 1958 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

Boeing and Aerojet Rocketdyne recently completed test firings of the CST-100 spacecraft’s steering jets at White Sands Space Harbor in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The tests assessed how the thrusters — which fire with 6,675 N (1,500 lbf) of thrust– will speed up, slow down and move the spacecraft while carrying NASA astronauts in Earth’s orbit.

Rocket: Antares; Payload: Cygnus; Date: 18 September 2013, 1458 UTC; Launch site: Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Wallops Island, 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 288 km x 256 km above the Earth, inclined at 51.6 degrees to the equator.

Rocket: Atlas V 531; Payload: AEHF 3; Date: 18 September 2013, 0810 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. Satellite manufacturer Lockheed Martin confirmed signal acquisition at 51 minutes after launch.

Astrium and Arianespace signed an initial agreement on 17 September to begin the production of 18 additional Ariane 5 ECA launchers.

Boeing shipped the fifth GPS IIF satellite from its satellite factory in El Segundo, California, on a U.S. Air Force C-17 airlifter.