Satellite News

The U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center Launch Enterprise and Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) recently signed a contract modification to reuse a Falcon 9 first-stage booster – for the first time on a National Security Space Launch mission – starting with the fifth Global Positioning System (GPS)-III satellite, scheduled to launch next year.

Exolaunch announced that it will arrange the launch and provide technical mission management for four of Spire Global’s Lemur-class 3U cubesats aboard a Soyuz-2.1b rocket mission scheduled for 28 September.

A next-generation GLONASS-K satellite has been delivered to the Plesetsk cosmodrome ahead of a launch scheduled for 16 October, Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems said.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 4B; Payload: Haiyang-2C (HY-2C); Date: 21 September 2020, 0540 UTC; Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China. The satellite was deployed into a 931 km x 948 km x 66.00 degrees orbit.

The launch of a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying the NROL-44 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office is now planned for 26 September 2020.

Pursuant to an amended launch contract with OneWeb, Arianespace will perform 16 more Soyuz launches from three spaceports (Kourou, Baikonur and Vostochny) beginning in late 2020 and continuing through 2022. These launches will enable OneWeb to complete the deployment of its full global constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites by the end of 2022.

Guangzhou-based company Guoyao Tech announced a roadmap to complete a prototype launch of 10 kg by 2022 and short-range tonnage launch by 2023 using a novel launch system – based on electromagnetic technology that could essentially bring satellites and humans into space.

The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite is targeted for lift-off 10 November at 1931 UTC from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California, USA.