Satellite News

In preparation for NASA’s first Ares I-X test flight in August, engineers from Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne have finished pressurising and loading 640 kg of propellants into heritage hardware from the Peacekeeper missile system.
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The Second Captive Firing Test (CFT) of the First Stage Flight Model Tank for the H-IIB Launch Vehicle has been delayed owing to bad weather.
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Rocket: Zenit 3-SL; Payload: SICRAL 1B; Date: 20 April 2009, 0816 UTC; Site: Odyssey Launch Platform, positioned on the equator at 154 degrees West longitude in the Pacific Ocean. Less than two hours later, the Block DM-SL upper stage inserted the 3,038 kg SICRAL 1B satellite into a high perigee geosynchronous transfer orbit.
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Rocket: PSLV; Payload: RISAT-2, ANUSAT; Date: 20 April 2009, 0115 UTC; Site: Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, India. The RISAT-2 radar imaging satellite was placed in an orbit of 550 km altitude with an inclination of 41 degrees to the equator and an orbital period of about 90 minutes.
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Due to a potential compatibility issue between the RazakSAT spacecraft and Falcon 1 launch vehicle, Space Exploration Technologies and Astronautic Technology (M) Sdn Bhd (ATSB), Malaysia, have agreed to postpone the launch of ATSB’s RazakSAT satellite.
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Arianespace announced a new delay in the launch of ESA’s Herschel and Plack satellites.
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The Sea Launch team is initiating a 72-hour countdown at its equatorial launch site, in preparation for the launch of Telespazio’s SICRAL 1B communications satellite on 20 April.
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The launch of RazakSAT, Malaysia’s second remote sensing satellite, has been postponed owing to technical problems with the Falcon 1 launcher, the country’s Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry secretary-general Datuk Abdul Hanan Alang Endut said.
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