Satellite News

Space shuttle Discovery’s launch to the International Space Station on the STS-119 mission now is targeted for no earlier than 15 March (UTC).

ViaSat, Inc. switched the launch service provider for its planned ViaSat 1 satellite for financial reasons, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

North Korea told two U.N. agencies it plans to launch the experimental communications satellite Kwangmyongsong No. 2 between 4 and 8 April. Meanwhile, South Korea has postponed the first launch of its KSLV-1 rocket.

With lift-off just five days away, ESA’s GOCE spacecraft – encased in the protective half-shells of the launcher fairing – has been transported from the cleanroom and installed in the launch tower at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.

RazakSAT, Malaysia’s first remote sensing satellite, will be blasted into space from Kwajalein Island on 21 April.

The launch of the space shuttle Discovery was cancelled just hours ahead of blast off.
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International Launch Services (ILS) announced a contract for the launch of the ViaSat-1 satellite on an ILS Proton. The spacecraft was originally scheduled for launch aboard an Ariane 5 in the same time frame.
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Arianespace said it is keeping up its Ariane 5 mission pace with this week’s delivery of the third heavy-lift vehicle to be launched in 2009 from the Spaceport in French Guiana.
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