News on key developments at SupremeSAT, and general news on the Space and Satellite industry from across the web
India’s space agency announced the launch of its Geo Imaging Satellite (GISAT-1) on 5 March. However, a day ahead of the launch, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced the launch had been "postponed due to technical reasons." According to a regional newspaper in India, the launch of GISAT-1 was stalled under pressure from the…
Rocket Lab has reached an agreement to acquire Sinclair Interplanetary, a provider of flight-proven satellite hardware. Financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020031804
12 March 2020 marked 20 years since the launch of ISS-Reshetnev’s Ekspress-A satellite. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020031805
For its fourth mission of the year – and the second flight in 2020 with the Soyuz medium-lift launcher – Arianespace will perform the third launch for the OneWeb constellation, orbiting 34 satellites. Lift-off is scheduled for 21 March at 1707 UTC. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020031700
Intelsat has selected SpaceX as its launch partner for Intelsat 40e (IS-40e). The launch is planned for 2022 on SpaceX’s American-built Falcon 9 launch vehicle. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020031701
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) shipped the core of the last H-IIB Launch Vehicle (No. 9) from the Tobishima Plant of the Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works in Aichi Prefecture to the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020031702
NASA has certified Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle. The certification milestone was achieved largely through the successful launch of the NASA ELaNa-19 mission which saw 13 NASA CubeSats delivered to orbit by Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle in December 2018. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020031703
The Sea Launch Commander command ship has arrived in Slavyanka in the Primorsky Territory in Russia’s Far East. The ship left the port of Long Beach near Los Angeles on 28 February. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020031704
The inaugural flight of China’s new Chang Zheng 7A rocket – a variant of the CZ-7 – ended in failure on 16 March 2020. Lift-off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center took place at 1334 UTC. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020031600
Rocket: Soyuz-2.1b; Payload: GLONASS-M; Date: 16 March 2020, 1828 UTC; Launch site: Plesetsk, Russia. The Russian Defence Ministry declared the launch a success. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020031601