Satellite News

The Minotaur I rocket with TacSat 2 and GeneSat 1 aboard will be launched no earlier than 15 December.

Rocket: Proton M/Briz M; Payload: Measat 3; Date: 11 December 2006, 2328 UTC; Launch Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The mission lasted 9 hours and 12 minutes before Measat 3 was released into a geosynchronous transfer orbit.

The launch of a Minotaur 1 from the mid-Atlantic region’s commercial spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island has been postponed because of a problem with the flight software for TacSat 2, one of the satellites the rocket was supposed to put in orbit.

Boeing Launch Services has been awarded a contract to launch two commercial satellites in 2007 for Alcatel Alenia Space Italia, the prime contractor of the Italian Space Agency.

The space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on 10 December, 0247 UTC on one of the most complex missions ever to the International Space Station.

Rocket: Ariane 5 ECA; Payload: WildBlue 1, AMC 18; Date: 8 December 2006, 2208 UTC; Launch Site: Kourou, French Guiana. The two U.S. communications satellites were successfully placed in geostationary transfer orbit.

NASA managers have postponed the launch of space shuttle Discovery until 10 December (UTC) because of low cloud cover during the launch attempt on 8 December.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 3A; Payload: Fengyun-2D [FY-2D]; Date: 8 December, 0053 UTC. Launch Site: Xichang, China. The satellite separated from the rocket about 24 minutes after lift-off and successfully entered geosynchronous transfer orbit, according to the satellite monitoring centre in Xi’an.