Satellite News

Arianespace announced a preorder from the European Space Agency (ESA), on behalf of the European Commission (DG Grow), for four launches using the Ariane 6 rocket. Planned to start in January 2022, these launches will orbit eight satellites from Batch 3 to support the final deployment of the Galileo constellation and the replacement of certain satellites.

This year’s first launch of a Proton-M rocket with Ekspress-80 and Ekspress-103 communications satellites from the Baikonur spaceport has been postponed to late May owing to problems with the rocket’s components, Khrunichev Space Center Director General Alexei Varochko was quoted as saying.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 3B/G2; Payload: Beidou-3G2Q; Date: 9 March 2020, 1155 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. The rocket delivered the navigation satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit. China’s state media declared the launch a success.

Rocket Lab has announced that its next mission will deploy payloads for the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Canberra Space.

Momentus said it has purchased rides on six SpaceX SmallSat Rideshare Program missions, including five launches to Sun-Synchronous orbit (SSO) and one to mid-inclined low Earth orbit, which Momentus will use to allow its customers access to custom drop-off altitudes and orbits in space.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: Dragon CRS-20; Date: 6 March 2020, 1850 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The Dragon capsule separated from Falcon 9’s second stage about nine minutes after lift-off and will attach to the space station on Monday, 9 March.

Almost all Arianespace staff have reportedly left the Kourou space centre in French Guiana after several cases of the new coronavirus-related disease have been identified in a community nearby.

Due to additional checks to be performed on the Fregat upper stage of the Soyuz flight VS24, the launch from the French Guiana Space Center is postponed.