Satellite News

Rocket: Chang Zheng 5; Payload: Chang’e-5; Date: 23 November 2020, 2030 UTC; Launch site: Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site, China. The Chang’e 5 spacecraft separated from the rocket 37 minutes after lift-off. The rocket placed the 8.2-metric ton Chang’e 5, which has four components — orbiter, lander, ascender and re-entry capsule — in an Earth-moon transfer trajectory.

A Soyuz-ST-A rocket for orbiting a UAE FalconEye satellite will be rolled out to the launch pad of the Guiana Space Center on 25 November after repairs, a source in the Russian space industry said. Meanwhile, a Gonets launch from Plesetsk was delayed.

Rocket: Electron; Payload: 30 smallsats; Date: 20 November 2020, 1520 UTC; Launch site: Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand. The ‘Return to Sender’ mission deployed satellites for TriSept, Swam Technologies, Unseenlabs, and the Auckland Programme for Space Systems at The University of Auckland. The mission brings the total number of satellites launched by Rocket Lab to 95.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich; Date: 21 November 2020, 1717 UTC; Launch site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA. The satellite was delivered into orbit just under an hour after lift-off and contact was established at the ground station in Alaska at 1849 UTC.

Russia’s Arktika-M, the first satellite to monitor the Arctic climate and environment, is going to be launched in February 2021, according to a source in the space and rocket industry.

UK communications company OneWeb is planning to have eight to ten satellite launches in 2021 from the Guiana Space Center and the Baikonur and Vostochny spaceports, a spokesperson for Glavkosmos, a subsidiary of Roskosmos state space corporation, was quoted as saying.

Astroscale Holdings Inc. announced that its End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) mission will launch on a Soyuz rocket operated by GK Launch Services from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, in March 2021.

The fifth Chang Zheng-5 rocket, to be used to launch China’s Chang’e-5 lunar probe, was vertically transported to the launching area at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China’s Hainan Province on Tuesday.