Satellite News

NASA and Boeing have initiated a contract for the production of 10 Space Launch System core stages and up to eight Exploration Upper Stages to support the third through the twelfth Artemis missions. Up to 10 additional core stages may be ordered under the contract.

Rocket Lab is currently targeting no earlier than 17 October 2019, 0000 UTC for the launch of Rocket Lab’s 9th mission, ‘As The Crow Flies.’

Firefly Black, LLC announced its selection by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s Small Launch and Targets Division as a launch service provider for the Orbital Services Program-4 Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract.

Dymon announced the signing of a joint agreement with Astrobotic to send the first Japanese lunar rover onboard the Peregrine lunar lander to the Moon in 2021.

Rocket: Pegasus XL; Payload: Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON); Date: 11 October 2019, 0031 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The satellite was placed into a 597 km x 602 km x 27.0 degrees orbit.

Aerojet Rocketdyne has entered into a Space Act Agreement with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center to design and manufacture a lightweight rocket engine thrust chamber assembly using innovative additive manufacturing processes and materials.

International Launch Services (ILS) successfully inserted the Eutelsat 5 West B and the Mission Extension Vehicle-1 (MEV-1) satellites into their planned super-synchronous Transfer Orbits (SSTO) for Eutelsat of Paris, France, and SpaceLogistics LLC of Dulles, Virginia.

Rocket: Proton M/Briz M; Payload: Eutelsat 5 West B [Eutelsat 5WB], Mission Extension Vehicle-1 [MEV-1]; Date: 9 October 2019, 1017 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The delivery of the satellites into a supersynchronous transfer orbit was to take a record 15 hours and 54 minutes [too late for this issue].