Satellite News

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) announced that the third flight of its Falcon 1 rocket is scheduled between 1 and 5 August.

The fifth Ariane 5 of 2008 is now under Arianespace’s responsibility for payload integration and launch following its delivery by industrial prime contractor Astrium at the Spaceport in French Guiana.

Rocket: Soyuz 2-1b; Payload: Kosmos 2441; Date: 26 July 2008, 1831 UTC; Site: Plesetsk, Russia. The classified military satellite was successfully deployed in its target orbit nine minutes after lift-off.

South Korea’s first KLSV rocket launch may be put off until 2009 as the arrival of the main booster and other key parts from Russia is delayed.

The Director-General of EUMETSAT, Dr. Lars Prahm, and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Arianespace, Jean-Yves Le Gall, have signed the contract for the launch service for the last Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite, MSG-4.

Rocket: Kosmos 3M; Payload: SAR-Lupe 5; Date: 22 July 2008, 0240 UTC; Site: Plesetsk, Russia. The launcher deployed the radar satellite in Low-earth orbit at an altitude of around 500 km after roughly half an hour.

Assembly works on the prospective Soyuz launch pad at the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana will begin in the middle of August, First Deputy Director General of the General Machine Building Design Bureau Vladimir Klimov said.

The Indian Union Cabinet has approved funding of six GSLV operational flights at an estimated cost of INR12.81 billion (EUR189 million, US$299 million).