Satellite News

Rocket: Ariane 5 ESC-D; Payload: Eutelsat QUANTUM, Star One D2; Date: 29 July 2021, 2100 UTC; Launch site: Kourou, French Guiana. The satellites were deployed into geostationary transfer orbit.

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Rocket: Chang Zheng 2D; Payload: Tianhui I-04 (Tianhui 1D); Date: 29 July 2021, 0401 UTC; Launch site; Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China. The satellite successfully entered the planned orbit.

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Rocket: Electron; Payload: Monolith; Date: 29 July 2021, 0600 UTC; Launch site: Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand. The successful mission was Rocket Lab’s fourth launch for the year and its 21st Electron mission overall.

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Rocket Lab announced it will launch a research and development satellite to low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand for the United States Space Force (USSF). The dedicated mission is scheduled for lift-off on 29 July (UTC).

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket is in final preparations to launch Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on the second Orbital Flight Test (OFT-2) to the International Space Station (ISS).

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NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) to provide launch services for Earth’s first mission to conduct detailed investigations of Jupiter’s moon Europa.

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Launch service provider Rocket Factory Augsburg AG has successfully tested its entire engine with staged combustion over eight seconds. The test, which was conducted in Kiruna, Sweden, represents another important milestone in the development process: The eight-second burn time with a stable combustion is regarded in the industry as proof that an engine is fully functional, reaching a thermal steady-state across all engine components.

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Ad Astra Rocket Company’s VASIMR VX-200SS Plasma Rocket has completed 88 hours of continuous operation at 80 kW at the company’s Texas laboratory near Houston. In doing so, the company establishes a new high-power world endurance record in electric propulsion.

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