News on key developments at SupremeSAT, and general news on the Space and Satellite industry from across the web
Rocket: Chang Zheng 3B/G2; Payload: Beidou-3G1Q [Beidou-41]; Time: 2 November 2018, 1557 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center; China. The navigation satellite was placed into a 184 km x 35,8127 km x 28.5 degrees geostationary transfer orbit. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018110401
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission has resumed collecting science-quality data and planned in-orbit checks after successfully completing a switchover to a backup system in the microwave instrument (MWI) on one of the mission’s twin spacecraft. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018110402
The launch of a Soyuz-2.1b rocket with a GLONASS space vehicle on 3 November was insured, head of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roskosmos Dmitry Rogozin said. The launch of the cargo spacecraft Progress MS-10 on 16 November will also be insured, he added. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018110403
Viasat, Inc. announced financial results for the fiscal second quarter ending 30 September 2018. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018110404
Globalstar, Inc. announced its financial results for the quarter ending 30 September 2018. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018110405
Oleg Skorobogatov, the head of the commission that probed the 11 October Soyuz FG accident, said the flight was aborted because part of a sensor that indicates the separation of the stages of the rocket was damaged during assembly at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018110100
The two passengers for Arianespace’s next Ariane 5 flight – the GEO-KOMPSAT-2A and GSAT-11 satellites – are now in French Guiana where launch preparations are moving into a new phase for lift-off during December. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018110101
On 31 October 2018, Parker Solar Probe began its first of 24 solar encounters. This period — which lasts until 11 November — is the time during which the spacecraft is within 0.25 astronomical units, or 37 million km, of the Sun’s centre. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018110102
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft missed scheduled communications sessions with NASA’s Deep Space Network on 31 October and 1 November. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018110103
Harris Corporation has provided Lockheed Martin with its sixth of ten advanced navigation payloads contracted for the U.S. Air Force’s GPS III satellite programme. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018110104