News on key developments at SupremeSAT, and general news on the Space and Satellite industry from across the web
Boeing has delivered the core stage of NASA’s first Space Launch System (SLS) deep space exploration rocket, moving it out of the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to the agency’s Pegasus barge. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020010901
Chinese state media said the recently launched Tongxin Jishu Shiyan Weixing 5 (TJSW-5) has entered a preset orbit. It will be used in communication, radio, television and data transmission, as well as to test high throughput technology. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020010800
NASA is opening an independent investigation with Boeing over a software glitch that prevented its Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner vessel from reaching the International Space Station in December, the agency said. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020010801
Thales Alenia Space to carry out a concept study concerning intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) applications using a Stratobus type platform to meet French army operational needs. Thales Alenia Space’s Stratobus is an autonomous stratospheric airship in the HAPS [High Altitude Platform System] category, operating from an altitude of 20 kilometers. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020010802
Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: 60 Starlink satellites; Date: 7 January 2020, 0219 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The satellites were deployed at an altitude of 290 kilometers and will later engage their ion thrusters to reach an operational orbit of 550 kilometers. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020010700
Rocket: Chang Zheng 3B/G2; Payload: Tongxin Jishu Shiyan Weixing 5 (TJSW-5); Date: 7 January 2020, 1520 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. The satellite was deployed into geostationary transfer orbit. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020010701
Arianespace and the European Space Agency (ESA) announced the signature of a launch services contract for the Euclid satellite – with the mission’s timeframe for lift-off starting in mid-2022 from the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana (South America). http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020010702
Chinese space engineers have tested a micro propulsion technology on a recently launched satellite, which could be used in future space-based gravitational wave detection. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020010600
The Progress Rocket and Space Center (RCC, part of Russian space corporation Roskosmos), together with S7 Space (operator of the Sea Launch project), have begun to work on the parameters of a rocket for the Sea Launch project, a spokesperson with the centre said. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020010500
China’s heaviest and most advanced satellite, Shijian-20, has reached its fixed position in geosynchronous orbit, marking the first successful flight of DFH-5 satellite platform, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020010501