Satellite News

RUAG Space said it has started providing thermal insulation for launch vehicles.

Rocket: Proton M/Briz M; Payload: Yamal-601; Date: 30 May 2019, 1742 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Separation of the Yamal 601 satellite from the Briz M upper stage is scheduled more than nine hours into the mission, at 0255 UTC (too late for this issue).

Program validation tests for ETID (Expander-cycle Technology Integrated Demonstrator), which is designed to develop new technologies for upper stage rocket engines, were completed on 22 March 2019, with the successful hot-fire testing campaign. A total of 14 thrust chamber and valve components developed by ArianeGroup and its European partners have been undergoing testing at the German Aerospace Center, DLR, in Lampoldshausen, Germany, since June 2018.

Russia will spend RUB259.4 billion (approx. US$4 billion) on space launches in 2019-2021, according to a government resolution drafted by state corporation Roskosmos.

China will send six to eight new satellites of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) into space this year, according to the tenth China Satellite Navigation Conference.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: 60 Starlink satellites; Date: 24 May 2019, 0230 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Approximately one hour and two minutes after lift-off, the Starlink satellites were deployed at an altitude of 440 km. They then used onboard propulsion to reach an operational altitude of 550 km.

Rocket: PSLV-C46 (core only); Payload: RISAT-2B [RISAT-2BR1?]; Date: 22 May 2019, 0000 UTC; Launch site: Satish Dhawan Space Centre(SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. PSLV-C46 injected RISAT-2B into a orbit of 556 km about 15 minutes and 25 seconds after lift-off.

The press office of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roskosmos confirmed that the launch of the Spektr-UV observatory [also known as Spektr-UF, Spektr-F and World Space Observatory-Ultraviolet (WSO-UV)] had been scheduled for October 2025.