Satellite News

The Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) for Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C21)/SPOT-6/PROITERES mission, which met on 5 September 2012 at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota has cleared the launch of PSLV-C21/SPOT-6/PROITERES mission at 0421 UTC on Sunday, 9 September 2012.Other Posts:IPSTAR Enters Malaysian MarketSatellite TV Providers – DISH Network And DirecTV ComparedSES Astra, Verhaert To Run ESA Ground StationNASA issues proposal request for Ares I avionics unitNSR: hosted payload proposition remains viable over the long termKA-SAT enters commercial serviceMeasat 3A to be flown back to U.S. for repairsOrbcomm Inc. results Q2 2008

On 31 August, SpaceX completed a successful wet dress rehearsal, a launch readiness test which simulates the actual countdown of the Falcon 9 rocket.
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Rocket: Atlas V; Payload: Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP); Date: 30 August 2012, 0805 UTC; Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The first RBSP spacecraft separated from the rocket’s Centaur booster 1 hour, 18 minutes after launch. The second spacecraft followed 12 minutes later.

Russia’s remote sensing satellite Kanopus-B, launched a month ago, has taken its first photos of the Earth’s surface, the Federal Space Agency Roskosmos said.

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is on track to become the first probe to orbit and study two distant solar system destinations, to help scientists answer questions about the formation of our solar system. The spacecraft is scheduled to leave the giant asteroid Vesta on 5 September (UTC) to start its two-and-a-half-year journey to the dwarf planet Ceres.

Hayabusa 2, JAXA’s second attempt at collecting material from an asteroid, will be launched in 2014 with a view to settling on the targeted asteroid, named 1999 JU3, in mid-2018 before arriving back on Earth in 2020, Physics World reports.

Retired satellites, no longer controlled from Earth, tumble in their orbits through space while travelling at high speed. A spacecraft seeking to rendezvous with such a satellite must perform a delicate dance to safely approach and synchronise movements. With the help of teams of individuals from around the world, the U.S.Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is beginning to determine the steps required. Their work could inform the design of autonomous control mechanisms for all manner of complex future space operations.

The launch of an Atlas V carrying NASA’s Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) payload was scrubbed again, this time due to weather conditions associated with lightning, as well as cumulus and anvil clouds.