Satellite News

Rocket Lab announced Astro Digital as the customer for Rocket Lab’s ninth Electron mission, and fifth mission of 2019.

Russia will send only two manned Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2020, instead of four it has been sending every year since 2009, according to insurance broker RK-Insurance, a subsidiary of Russian State Space Corporation Roskosmos.

The U.S. Air Force confirmed there will be five more Delta IV Heavy missions. United Launch Alliance will be paid the manufacturing costs and on top receive US$1.18 billion to support those five launches.

Arianespace said it welcomes the Space Safety Coalition’s initiative to better preserve the orbital environment and endorses this organisation’s related guidelines: “Best Practices for the Sustainability of Space Operations.”

The first launch of a new Angara heavy carrier rocket from the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East is due to take place at the end of the summer of 2023, Head of the State Space Corporation Roskosmos Dmitry Rogozin said.

Ariane 6’s Vulcain 2.1 liquid-fuelled engine has now completed its qualification testing, which means combined tests can now begin. A review last week marked the culmination of two Vulcain static firing test campaigns over 15 months on two demonstration models in test facilities at the DLR German Aerospace Center test facility in Lampoldshausen.

Rocket: Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat M; Payload: EKS-3 [Tundra 3, Kosmos-2541]; Date: 26 September 2019, 0746 UTC; Launch site: Plesetsk, Russia. The early warning was deployed as planned and has been tracked in a 1,646 km x 38,537 km x 63.83 degrees Molniya orbit.

The launch of a Proton-M rocket with Eutelsat-5WB and MEV-1 will take place in the first half of October, Roskosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said.