Satellite News

Rocket: Proton M/Block DM2; Payload: three Uragan-M satellites (likely designated Kosmos 2435, 2436, 2437); Date: 25 December 2007, 1932 UTC; Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The navigation satellites were deployed about 3.5 hours after lift-off.

Rocket: Soyuz-U; Payload:Progress M-62 (Progress P27); Date: 23 December 2007, 0712 UTC; Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The Progress cargo spacecraft was accurately placed on the target orbit for another mission to the International Space Station.

Arianespace published the orbital data of the RASCOM-QAF1/Horizons-2 launch, and summed up its 2007 launch statistics.

The long-delayed Japanese GX rocket project has run into new trouble, the Yomiuri Shimbun reports.

Rocket: Ariane 5 GS; Payload: RASCOM-QAF 1, Horizons-2; Date: 21 December 2007, 2142 UTC; Site: Kourou, French Guyana. The satellites were successfully placed in their target orbits.

ISRO has set the launch dates for an Israeli spy satellite and its own Cartosat-2.

Rocket: Delta II 7925-9.5; Payload: GPS IIR-18M; Date: 20 December 2007, 2004 UTC; Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The navigation satellite was successfully placed in orbit 68 minutes after lift-off.

NASA said it is focusing on the connectors linking fuel gauges in the liquid hydrogen tank to the exterior as the likely cause of erroneous sensor readings.