Satellite News

Orbital Sciences Corporation announced that the U.S. Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center (SMC) recently placed an order for a new Minotaur IV launch vehicle under the company’s Orbital/Suborbital Program-2 (OSP-2) contract.

Telesat announced that its Nimiq 4 satellite will launch on 19 September, 2148 UTC from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The Sea Launch vessels have departed Sea Launch Home Port and are now on their way to the Equator for the launch of Intelsat’s Galaxy 19 satellite, on 23 September.

Rocket: Soyuz-U; Payload: Progress M-65 (Progress P30); Date: 10 September 2008, 1950 UTC; Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The spacecraft was due to arrive at the ISS on 12 September, but docking has been delayed because NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas/USA was closed because of an approaching storm.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has been granted an Operational License by the U.S. Air Force for the use of Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the Florida coast.

NASA has awarded Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne a contract change to provide additional sea-level and simulated-altitude ground tests for the J-2X rocket engine.

The launch of ESA’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite aboard a Rokot from Plesetsk, Russia, was delayed almost a month because of a problem with the launch vehicle’s upper stage.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 2C/SMA; Payload: Huan Jing-1A, Huan Jing-1B (HJ-1A, HJ-1B); Date: 6 September 2008, 0325 UTC; Site: Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre, China. The two-stage rocket released the two satellites into a 650-km Sun-synchronous orbit 51 minutes after lift-off.