Satellite News

The launch of the first pan-African satellite, Rascom 1, is scheduled for 18 December, the Sudan News Agency reported.

Taiwan plans to use a locally made rocket to launch its satellites by 2010, National Science Council Chairman Chen Chien-jen said at a legislative hearing.

The recently launched Kosmos 2430 military satellite “is a new satellite of the US-KS early-warning system (also known as Oko),” according to Pavel Podvig’s RussianForces.org web site.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 3A; Payload: Chang’e 1; Date: 24 October 2007, 1005 UTC; Site: Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, China. The country’s first lunar probe was successfully placed in a 205 km x 50,930 km Earth orbit at 1029 UTC and has meanwhile deployed its solar panels.

The launch of a Proton-K booster rocket with three GLONASS satellites from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, has been pushed back one day.

The space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew lifted off today at 1538 UTC from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to continue construction of the International Space Station.

Rocket: Soyuz FG/Fregat; Payload: four Globalstar satellites; Date: 20 October 2007, 2012 UTC; Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The upper stage accurately injected the four satellites into the targeted low Earth orbit at 920 km altitude.

International Launch Services (ILS) has scheduled its next Proton Briz M commercial mission for 18 November from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, with the launch of the Sirius 4 satellite for SES Sirius of Sweden.