Satellite News

Alliant Techsystems announced it has selected L-3 Communications to provide key components of the avionics subsystem for the first stage of NASA’s next-generation human launch vehicle — the Ares I.

The space shuttle Discovery and its crew landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centerat 1801 UTC after completing a 15-day journey of more than 9.9 million km in space. Discovery’s STS-120 mission added a key component to the International Space Station and featured an unprecedented spacewalk to repair a damaged solar array.

Russia plans five more launches from the Baikonur cosmodrome in 2007, starting with a Proton-M that is to loft Sirius 4 on 18 November.

Alliant Techsystems conducted a test firing of NASA’s four segment Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM). Preliminary indications are that all test objectives for shuttle and Ares I were met.

Rocket: Kosmos 3M; Payload: SAR-Lupe 3; Date: 1 November 2007, 0051 UTC; Site: Plesetsk, Russia. The third German military radar imaging satellite was successfully released into its intended orbit around half an hour after lift-off.

The Odyssey Launch Platform and the Sea Launch Commander have departed Sea Launch Home Port for the launch of the Thuraya-3 satellite. Lift-off is scheduled for 13 November in a 44-minute launch window that will open at 1557 UTC.

China plans to develop a new range of heavy-duty carrier rockets within six or seven years, state media said.

Rocket: Proton K/Block DM; Payload: three Uragan navigation satellites (likely designation Kosmos 2431, 2432 and 2433); Date: 26 October 2007, 0735 UTC; Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The spacecraft successfully separated about 3 1/2 hours later from the upper stage.