Satellite News

On 25 March, ESA and CNES, the French Space Agency, signed a EUR435 million contract assuring the availability of the CSG launch range for ESA programmes and activities and for the exploitation of Ariane, Vega and Soyuz launchers over the period 2009 to 2013.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. said the the first captive firing test of the First Stage Flight Model Tank for the H-IIB Launch Vehicle, scheduled for 27 March 2009 at the Tanegashima Space Center, was postponed.

At Baikonur, an integrated team of personnel from Khrunichev and Roskosmos successfully completed operations on assembly of the Proton Briz M rocket with the W2A spacecraft. Also, preparations have begun for the Proton M Launch of ProtoStar II.

Rocket: Soyuz-FG; Payload: Soyuz TMA-14; Date: 26 March 2009, 1143 UTC; Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Less than 10 minutes after launch the crewed spacecraft reached orbit. Its antennas and solar arrays were deployed shortly afterward.

Rocket: Delta II 7925-9.5; Payload: GPS IIR-20(M); Date: 24 March 2009, 0834 UTC; Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. After a 1 hour, 8 minute flight the 47th successful GPS satellite launched by a Delta II was delivered to orbit.

International Launch Services (ILS) and Intelsat announced a contract for launch of the Intelsat 16 satellite on an ILS Proton later this year.

RazakSAT, Malaysia’s remote-sensing satellite, has arrived at Omelek Island in the Republic of Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean from where it will be launched into orbit next month.

The launch of Eutelsat’s W2A satellite aboard an International Launch Services Proton is scheduled for 3 April 2009, 1624 UTC.