Satellite News

Rocket: PSLV-C22; Payload: IRNSS-1A; Date: 1 July 2013, 1811 UTC; Launch site: Shriharikota, India. The first of the seven satellites planned under the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) was successfully deployed into geosynchronous transfer orbit.

Rocket: Pegasus XL; Payload: IRIS; Date: 28 June 2013, 0227 UTC; Launch site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA. The IRIS (Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph) spacecraft was deployed into its targeted orbit approximately 640 km above the Earth.

United Launch Services LLC, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has won a potential US$1 billion contract to provide production services for seven launch vehicle configurations used by the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. National Reconnaissance Organization.

Arianespace said it is keeping up the mission pace at its French Guiana base of operations with the acceptance of another heavy-lift Ariane 5, which now is being readied for the integration of a dual-satellite payload to be orbited on 25 July.

Rocket: Soyuz 2.1-b; Payload: Resurs-P; Date: 25 June 2013, 1728 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. It was the first of two successful (yet otherwise unrelated) Soyuz launches on the same day.

Rocket: Soyuz ST-B/Fregat; Payload: four O3b satellites; Date: 25 June 2013, 1924 UTC; Launch Site: Sinnamary, French Guiana. All four satellites were successfully deployed into their target orbits.

NASA has delayed the launch the Sun-observing IRIS satellite by a day.

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) was…Read more