Satellite News

Three Uragan satellites launched aboard a Proton K were successfully placed in their target orbit by the rocket’s Block-DM2 upper stage at 2350 UTC on 25 December.

Rocket: Proton-K/DM-2; Payload: three Uragan-M navigation satellites [likely to be designated Kosmos 2426, Kosmos 2427, Kosmos 2428]; Date: 25 December 2006, 2018 UTC; Launch Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The satellites were to be deployed from the Block DM-2 upper stage at around 2350 UTC [too late for this issue].

Rocket: Soyuz-2.1a/Fregat; Payload: Meridian 1 (Meridian N1); Date: 24 December 2006, 0834 UTC; Launch Site: Plesetsk, Russia. The satellite reached its target orbit at 1535 UTC.

The launch of the Russian Meridian military telecommunication satellite aboard a Soyuz-2.1a/Fregat has been postponed for the second time.

Space shuttle Discovery successfully concluded the STS-116 mission with a touchdown at Kennedy Space Center at 2232 UTC.

The launch of Japan’s next radar spy satellite aboard an H-IIA from Tanegashima Space Centre has been scheduled for 15 February 2007, the government said according to Kyodo news agency.

Russia has postponed the launch of a Soyuz-2.1a rocket from the Plesetsk space centre for 24 hours, Space Forces spokesman Alexei Kuznetsov said.

Several tiny satellites were released from the payload bay of space shuttle Discovery today as part of NASA’s Space Test Program-H2 (STP-H2).