Satellite News

The launch of NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) aboard a Delta II has been postponed to no earlier than 18 September.

Alliant Techsystems has received a five-year, US$22 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to develop automated composite technologies designed to reduce the manufacturing costs, and increase the performance of large composite launch vehicle structures.

NASA selected SpaceX and Rocketplane Kistler to develop and demonstrate commercial orbital transportation services that could open new markets and pave the way for contracts to launch and deliver crew and cargo to the International Space Station.

NASA senior managers unanimously voted to launch the Space Shuttle Atlantis on 27 August, 2030 UTC. The STS-115 mission marks the restart of the construction of the International Space Station.

Rocket: Ariane 5 ECA; Payload: JCSAT-10, Syracuse 3B; Date: 11 August 2006, 2215 UTC; Launch Site: Kourou, French Guiana. The rocket successfully placed two satellites into geostationary transfer orbit: the JCSAT-10 communications satellite for Japanese operator JSAT Corporation, and the Syracuse 3B military communications satellite for the French Ministry of Defense.

The Sea Launch team is preparing for its fourth mission of the year, the launch of the Koreasat 5 (Mugunghwa 5) communications satellite aboard a Zenit 3SL.

Purdue University engineers have demonstrated that an experiment can be specifically designed to study instabilities that occur spontaneously in real liquid-fuelled rocket engines.

SpaceDev, Inc. has been issued a United States patent for its hybrid propulsion technology.