Satellite News

The University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) announced the successful launch of three formation-flying microsatellites built by SFL under contract to Deep Space Industries for HawkEye 360 Inc. The microsatellites were launched last year into low Earth orbit on 3 December 2018, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

China’s Chang’e-4 lunar probe, launched in December, performed a “soft landing” on 3 December 2018 at 0226 UTC and transmitted the first-ever “close range” image of the far side of the moon, the China National Space Administration said.

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew past Ultima Thule in the early hours of New Year’s Day, ushering in the era of exploration from the enigmatic Kuiper Belt.

On 31 December , NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, 110 million kilometers away, carried out a single, eight-second burn of its thrusters – and entered into orbit around the asteroid Bennu, which thus became the smallest object ever to be orbited by a spacecraft.

China’s Chang’e-4 probe has entered a planned orbit to prepare for the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced.

GomSpace has signed a EUR300,000 development contract with ESA for the initiation of a new GOMX-5 satellite mission to demonstrate new nanosatellite capabilities for the next generation of constellations requiring high speed communications links and high levels of manoeuvrability.

The launch of a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy carrying the NROL-71 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office was scrubbed on 20 December (UTC) due to indications of elevated hydrogen concentrations within the port booster engine section.

Thunderstorms forced SpaceX to postpone the launch of a GPS III navigation satellite for the U.S. military, which was poised to be the company’s first national security space mission for the United States.