Satellite News

The KL-ALPHA A and KL-ALPHA B satellites that recently flew aboard a Kuaizhou-1A rocket were reportedly launched on behalf of KLEO Connect GmbH, Munich, Germany.

India will launch its cartography satellite Cartosat-3 and 13 commercial nanosatellites into sun-synchronous orbit on 24 November (UTC), the Indian space agency said.

Rocket: Kuaizhou-1A [KZ-1A]; Payload: KL-ALPHA A, KL-ALPHA B [KL-a-A, KL-a-B]; Date: 17 November 2019, 1000 UTC; Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China. State media reported that the two multimedia satellites were sent into planned orbit.

Nanoracks has booked a launch mission under the recently announced SpaceX rideshare programme. Onboard a Falcon 9, targeting launch in late 2020, Nanoracks has booked deployment of eight small satellites as well as the company’s first in-space Outpost-demonstration mission.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: 60 Starlink satellites; Date: 11 November 2019, 1456 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The satellites were released into 280-km orbits.

The launch of OneWeb satellites from the Baikonur cosmodrome was postponed from December this year to January 2020, three sources in Russia’s rocket and space industry said according to Novosti.

Rocket Lab announced that its next mission will launch multiple microsatellites in a rideshare mission representing five different countries. The launch window for Rocket Lab’s tenth flight, named ‘Running Out Of Fingers,’ will open on 25 November NZDT (UTC +13 hrs) and take place from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula.

Astrocast and D-Orbit have signed an agreement for the launch and deployment in LEO low inclination orbit of ten Astrocast nanosatellites through D-Orbit ‘s InOrbit NOW Launch Service.