Satellite News

Roskosmos intends to launch a new Angara carrier rocket in 2020, the Roskosmos press office was quoted as saying. The launch was previously scheduled for December 2019.

Boeing’s Starliner vessel returned to Earth on Sunday, landing in the New Mexico desert in the United States after a clock problem prevented a rendezvous with the International Space Station. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine insisted that the space mission was not a complete failure.

Rocket: Soyuz ST-A/Fregat; Payload: COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation, CHEOPS (Characterising Exoplanet Satellite) and three auxiliary payloads: EyeSat, OPS-SAT and ANGELS; Date: 18 December 2019, 0854 UTC; Launch site: Sinnamary, French Guiana. The launcher flew a four-hour-plus profile to release its multi-satellite payload into Sun-synchronous orbit – beginning with primary passenger COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation, then CHEOPS (Characterising Exoplanet Satellite) and three auxiliary payloads: EyeSat, OPS-SAT and ANGELS.

NASA has selected United Launch Services LLC (ULS) of Centennial, Colorado, to provide launch services for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-T (GOES-T) mission, which will provide advanced imagery and atmospheric measurements of Earth’s weather, oceans and environment, real-time mapping of total lightning activity, and improved monitoring of solar activity and space weather.

The Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province will host around 20 launch missions in 2020, including two satellites of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), according to an official from the centre.

Rocket Lab has begun construction on a new launch pad located at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The new pad will be the company’s third launch pad for the Electron launch vehicle, joining the existing pad at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand and the newly opened pad at Launch Complex 2 in Virginia, USA.

Rocket: Chang Zheng-3A; Payload: Beidou-3M19 (Beidou-52), Beidou-3M20 (Beidou-53); Date: 16 December 2019, 0722 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. The two navigation satellites were placed into approx. 22,524 km x 22,193 km x 55.02 degrees orbit after a flight of more than three hours.

The Soyuz vehicle for Arianespace’s year-ending mission has arrived at the launch zone in French Guiana, where it stands ready to receive the multi-satellite payload that will be lofted on this 17 December flight.