Satellite News

ESA’s proposed Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment mission now has a target: asteroid Didymos. For the last two years, ESA has been working with international partners on the mission concept, dubbed AIDA. Last week, research centres each side of the Atlantic agreed the spacecraft would target asteroid Didymos.

The U.S. Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center announced 31 January it has awarded contracts to ITT Exelis and Harris Corp. as a result of a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) released in July 2012 for the “Weather Satellite Follow-on Activities Risk Reduction Technology Project.”

Rocket: PSLV-C20 (core-alone); Payload: SARAL, SAPPHIRE, NEOSSat, AAUSAT3, BRITE, UniBRITE, STRaND; Date: 25 February 2013, 1231 UTC; Launch site: Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, India. The rocket injected the 409-kg Indo-French satellite SARAL first into orbit about 18 minutes after lift-off, followed by the other six satellites in about four minutes. The total payload mass was 668.5 kg.

Orbital Sciences Corporation successfully conducted an extended-duration “hot fire” test of the first stage propulsion system of its new Antares medium-class rocket.

The Guiana Space Center’s ZLV launch site in French Guiana is busy with activity as the second Vega undergoes its assembly for a mission scheduled in April.

NASA’s Launch Services Program at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida has selected United Launch Services, LLC to provide Delta II launch services for the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat)-2 mission, currently scheduled for July 2016.

NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility will provide launch range support for an Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket engine test scheduled for 22/23 February at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad-0A. The window for the engine test, or hot fire, is 2300 – 0200 UTC.

The launch rehearsal of PSLV – C20 with the primary satellite SARAL and six other satellites has been completed satisfactorily at SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota, ISRO said.