Satellite News

Unchanged unfavourable conditions at the equatorial launch site have forced Sea Launch to once more delay lift-off of its Zenit-3SL with NSS-8 on board.

Iran plans to launch a satellite soon using a ballistic missile converted into a launch vehicle, Aviation Week & Space Technology reports in an article that contains lots of speculative statements but practically no news.

Lift-off of the Zenit-3SL launch vehicle the NSS-8 telecommunications satellite on board has been postponed again, and SpaceX did not test fire its Falcon 1 rocket earlier this week as planned.

The launch of a Zenit-3SL with the NSS-8 telecommunications satellite on board has been postponed for 24 hours.

SpaceX said that during final check-outs prior to a static firing of its Falcon 1 rocket, an anomaly with the thrust vector control (TVC) pitch actuator on the second stage was discovered.

The anomaly that prevented ISRO from testing its cryogenic stage has turned out to be none. Instead, two misconfigured sensors provided erroneous readings, prompting the cancellation of the full-duration test.

Colonel General Vladimir Popovkin, commander of the Russian Space Forces, said that Russia will stop launching spacecraft from the Svobodny cosmodrome in the country’s Far East.

In 2005, the first flight of Russia’s new Angara rocket was announced to take place by the end of 2007. Now it’s expected no earlier than 2010, according to the commander of the Russian Space Forces.