Satellite News

All 16 RS-25 engines slated for the first four of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) missions have successfully demonstrated flight worthiness.

Northrop Grumman Corporation conducted its second ground test of a 160-cm diameter Graphite Epoxy Motor (GEM 63). The company developed this new side-mounted rocket motor to add power to the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V launch vehicle.

Rocket: Soyuz 2-1a; Payload: Progress MS-11 (Progress 72); Date: 4 April 2019, 1101 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The Progress MS-11 cargo spacecraft was accurately placed on the target orbit for the ISS resupplying mission.

Rocket: Soyuz 2-1b (Soyuz ST-B) / Fregat; Payload: O3b F5; Date: 4 April 2019, 1630 UTC; Launch site: Sinnamary, French Guiana. The launch vehicle delivered the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th O3b satellites into a circular orbit during a flight lasting 2 hours and 22 minutes until final separation. Total payload lift performance was estimated at 3,198 kg.

Rocket Lab announced that it will launch three experimental research and development (R&D) satellites for the U.S. Air Force in April. The mission will lift-off from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, carrying three R&D spacecraft to Low Earth Orbit aboard an Electron launch vehicle. The launch will be Rocket Lab’s second orbital mission of 2019, and fifth orbital mission overall.

China’s first rocket for commercial use, the Smart Dragon-1 (SD-1), has finished its engine test, paving way for its maiden flight in the first half of 2019, according to the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT).

Authorisation has been granted for tomorrow’s Arianespace Soyuz launch from the Spaceport in French Guiana, providing the “green light” for this mission to orbit the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th satellites in SES’ O3b constellation.

Russian space corporation Roskosmos is set to help S7 Group in the development of the Sea Launch project after the tragic death of the company’s co-owner Natalya Fileva, Roskosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin was quoted as saying.