Satellite News

The Sea Launch team is preparing for its fifth mission of 2006, the launch of the XM-4 satellite. The Odyssey Launch Platform and the Sea Launch Commander have departed from Home Port in Long Beach, California/USA, and are on their way to the launch site on the Equator to begin launch operations.

On 13 October, Arianespace placed two satellites into geostationary transfer orbit: DirecTV 9S for the U.S. operator DirecTV Inc., and Optus D1 for the Australian operator Optus. The Ariane 5 ECA launcher was also fitted with the ASAP 5 platform, allowing it to deploy the LDREX 2 experimental reflector for the Japanese space agency JAXA.

Rocket: Ariane 5 ECA; Payload: DirecTV 9S, Optus D1, LDREX 2; Date: 13 October 2006, 2056 UTC; Launch Site: Kourou, French Guiana. DirecTV was put into geostationary transfer orbit minutes approx. 27 minutes after lift-off, followed by Optus D1 four minutes later. The Japanese LDREX 2 antenna deployment experiment remained attached to the ESC-A upper stage.

The first launch of South Korea’s KSLV-1 rocket will be delayed one year because a technology transfer agreement with Russia, which is to provide most parts of the launcher, has not been signed yet.

International Launch Services (ILS) said it kicked off its next Proton launch campaign this week with the arrival Tuesday of the satellite payload, Arabsat’s Badr-4 (Arabsat 4B), at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The launch of the next Ariane 5 ECA was postponed by 24 hours in order to carry out additional checks on components of the launcher.

Alliant Techsystems recently completed a successful on-pad assembly, or pathfinder operation, of an ATK-designed launch vehicle, the ALV. The company said it was on schedule to fly its first mission, designated ALV X-1, in 2007.

Following the formal key point meeting with Starsem, the MetOp-A satellite mated to the Fregat upper stage has been successfully encapsulated in the fairing. The resulting Upper Composite will now be transferred, by train, from the integration facility to the launcher preparation facility.