Satellite News

The Russian government has given the green light to negotiations with Northrop Grumman on sales of Russia’s RD-181 rocket engines, according to a decree signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 11; Payload: two GECAM astronomy satellites; Date: 9 December 2020, 2014 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. The satellites were deployed into 587 km x 605 km x 29.00 degrees orbits.

The first mockup of the RD-0124MS rocket engine, developed for use in the Soyuz-5 perspective rocket was built at Voronezh Rocket Engine Building Center (part of Roskosmos).

NASA and Boeing are targeting 29 March for the launch of Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is a critical developmental milestone on the company’s path toward flying crew missions for NASA.

Supporting a rideshare manifest with a mix of small and large satellites, TriSept Corporation has selected Relativity Space for a full mission aboard Relativity’s Terran 1, the world’s first entirely 3D printed rocket.

Arianespace has signed a contract with Airbus to launch four new-generation optical observation satellites of the CO3D (Composante Optique 3D) constellation, to be orbited using the Vega C launcher.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: Dragon; Date: 6 December 2020, 0617 UTC; Launch site: Kennedy Space Center, Florida/USA. The Dragon resupply spacecraft is on its way to the International Space Station with more than 2,880 kg of science investigations, a new airlock, and other cargo.

Rocket: Chang Zheng-3B/G5; Payload: Gaofen-14; Date: 6 December 2020, 0358 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. The observation satellite was released into a 481 km x 496 km x 97.36 degrees Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO).