Satellite News

On the occasion of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to France, Astrium has signed a long term agreement with Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), on utilisation of the Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launch services.

The Rokot Briz-KM launch vehicle with ESA’s GOCE satellite on board is scheduled for launch from Plesetsk Cosmodrome on 8 October 2008 at 1421:17 UTC. Lift-off was delayed a month because of a problem with the launch vehicle’s upper stage.

The launch of Thailand’s THEOS aboard a Dnepr rocket has now been scheduled for 1 October.

Rocket: Falcon 1; Payload: “Ratsat” (payload mass simulator); Date: 28 September 2008, 2315 UTC; Site: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands. The rocket successfully reached orbit (although maybe not as precisely as initially claimed) and was also able to demonstrate the restart capability of the second stage engine.

The U.S. Air Force has asked the Defence Department’s chief arms buyer John Young to review its evaluation process in the Transformational Satellite (TSAT) competition. This may further delay the award of the multi-billion dollar contract.

United Launch Alliance announced the successful first hot-firing of the new Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RS-68A engine that will be used to power a future upgraded version of the Delta IV Heavy Lift launch vehicle. The hot-fire test was conducted at NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center, Mississippi.

The target launch date for space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-125 mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope has been reset to 15 October, 0219 UTC.

Rocket: Zenit 3SL/Block DM-SL; Payload: Galaxy 19; Date: 24 September 2008, 0928 UTC; Site: Odyssey Launch Platform, positioned on the equator at 154 degrees West longitude in the Pacific Ocean. Just over an hour later, the Block DM-SL upper stage inserted the 4,690 kg satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit.