Satellite News

Rocket: Soyuz-U; Payload: Progress M-04M (Progress P36); Date: 3 February 2010, 0345 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The Progress cargo spacecraft was accurately placed on the target orbit for another mission to the International Space Station.

Iran announced it has successfully launched a research rocket carrying a mouse (or a rat, according to other reports), two turtles and worms into space.

Pre-launch activities associated with the mid-February launch of an International Launch Services Proton M/Briz M launch vehicle with the Intelsat 16 satellite are nearing completion in Assembly and Testing Building (”MIK”) 92-A50 at Baikonur.
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NASA has awarded US$50 million through funded agreements to further the commercial sector’s capability to support transport of crew to and from low Earth orbit. This step is the first taken by NASA consistent with the U.S. President’s direction to foster commercial human spaceflight capabilities, the agency said.
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Jean-Yves Le Gall, Chairman and CEO of Arianespace, and Markus Bertschi, Launcher Programmes Department Head at the European Space Agency (ESA), have signed a contract defining Arianespace’s support services for the qualification campaign and combined testing of the Vega light launcher.
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Rocket: Proton M/Briz M; Payload: military communications satellite [Raduga 1M-3?, likely designation: Kosmos 2459]; Date: 28 January 2010, 0018 UTC; Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The mission successfully ended with spacecraft separation from the Briz M upper stage at 0919 UTC.

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Space Communication Ltd. (Spacecom), operator of the Amos satellite fleet, have signed an agreement for launch of a communication satellite aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 as early as December 2012.

Space shuttle Endeavour is set to begin a 13-day flight to the International Space Station with a launch on 7 February from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Lift-off is planned for 0939 UTC, making this the final scheduled space shuttle night launch (04:39 a.m. local time).
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