May 2016

http://www.satellitetoday.com/technology/2016/05/31/airbus-china-exec-becomes-eutelsat-china-ceo/

http://www.satellitetoday.com/technology/2016/05/31/ses-gilat-forge-hybrid-broadband-solution-for-asia/

Rocket: Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat; Payload: GLONASS-M No. 53; Date: 29 May 2016, 0845 UTC; Launch site: Plesetsk, Russia. At 1216 UTC the satellite reached its intended orbit and separated from the Fregat upper stage. It was catalogued in a 1,9148 km x 19,491 km x 64.8 degrees orbit. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2016053000

Rocket: Chang Zheng 4B; Payload: Ziyuan 3-02 [ZY-3-02], two ÑuSat microsatellites; Date: 30 May 2016, 0317 UTC; Launch site: Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre, China. All three satellites have successfully entered preset orbits, the Taiyuan centre said in a statement. ZY-3-02 was catalogued in a 483 km x 499 km x 97.5 degrees Sun-synchronous orbit. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2016053001

NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility will provide launch range support for an Orbital ATK Antares 230 rocket first stage test scheduled for 31 May at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad-0A. Backup test dates run through June 5. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2016053002

Orbital ATK, Inc. announced that the Thaicom 8 commercial communications satellite, built by the company for Thaicom PLC, was successfully delivered to orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and is operating as planned. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2016053003

Over the weekend, Rosetta experienced a ‘safe mode’ event 5 km from the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Contact with the spacecraft has since been recovered and the mission teams are working to resume normal operations. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2016053004

Pressurisation of the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), which is docked with the International Space Station, has been completed successfully on 28 May. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2016053005

JAXA has released an English-language overview of the chain of events that led to the unfortunate loss of its ASTRO-H "Hitomi" satellite. Human error is at least partially to blame. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2016053006

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: Thaicom 8; Date: 27 May 2016, 2139 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The upper stage engine fired two times to deploy the satellite into a 250 km x 90,000 km supersynchronous transfer orbit approx. 32 minutes after lift-off. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2016052700