News on key developments at SupremeSAT, and general news on the Space and Satellite industry from across the web
The UK-built Solar Orbiter is preparing to leave the Airbus factory in Stevenage to travel to Germany for testing, ahead of its launch in 2020 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018091701
The assembly and testing facility of the Baikonur cosmodrome which will be used for the launch of OneWeb satellites atop Russian rockets will go through a reconstruction ahead of the beginning of the launches, a source at the cosmodrome was quoted as saying. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018091702
On 12 September, in an extraordinary general meeting held in the form of voting by correspondence, shareholders of RSC Energia elected Sergey Yurievich Romanov as the General Director of the Corporation. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018091703
Rocket: PSLV-C42 (core-alone version); Payload: NovaSAR, S1-4; Date: 16 September 2018, 16347 UTC; Launch site: Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, India. Both satellites were injected into 583 km Sun Synchronous Orbit. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018091600
Rocket: Delta II; Payload: Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2); Date: 15 September 2018, 1302 UTC; Launch site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA. This marks the final mission of the Delta II rocket, which first launched on 14 February 1989, and launched 155 times including ICESat-2. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018091601
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have cancelled launch of the H-IIB Launch Vehicle No. 7 (H-IIB F7) with the H-II Transfer Vehicle "KOUNOTORI7" (HTV7) aboard. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018091602
The U.S. Air Force announced selection of Lockheed Martin for a fixed-price-type production contract for 22 GPS III Follow-On satellites with a total estimated contract value up to US$7.2 billion. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018091603
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission team plans to switch to a backup system in the Microwave Instrument (MWI) on one of the twin spacecraft this month. Following the switch-over, GRACE-FO is expected to quickly resume science data collection. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018091604
Two SSTL satellites are currently undergoing final launch preparations at the Satash Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India ready for lift-off on Sunday 16 September at 1637 UTC. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018091300
The Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) Geosynchronous Earth Orbit satellite (GEO-3) successfully achieved U.S. Air Force Space Command operational acceptance. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018091301