MEASAT'S NEW 3B SATELLITE TO LAUNCH ON MAY 29 - MEASAT Global Bhd (MEASAT) has announced its MEASAT-3b satellite is confirmed for launch on May 28 French Guiana Time (May 29 Kuala Lumpur time), at the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. In a statement Friday, it said the satellite is designed to provide an additional 48 high-powered Ku-band transponders which function to expand Direct-To-Home and Very Small Aperture Terminal services across Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Australia at the 91.5 East orbital slot. More (Source: Bernama - May 3)
TRAMPOLINE TO SPACE? RUSSIAN OFFICIAL TELLS NASA TO TAKE A FLYING LEAP - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, a target of U.S. sanctions sparked by the Ukraine crisis, said Tuesday that those sanctions would boomerang against America's space effort and essentially told NASA to take a flying leap ... on a trampoline. "After analyzing the sanctions against our space industry, I suggest to the USA to bring their astronauts to the International Space Station using a trampoline," Rogozin said via his Russian-language Twitter account. More (Source: NBCNews.com - May 1)
RUSSIAN RELAY SATELLITE LUCH-5B PUT INTO TARGET ORBIT - The Proton-M carrier rocket, launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on Monday, has put the Luch-5B relay satellite into target orbit, the Khrunichev state space research and production center's spokesman told Interfax. "The Luch-5B successfully separated from the Briz-M upper stage at 5:17 pm Moscow rime (GMT)," the spokesman said. Luch-5B was developed and made by the Krasnoyarsk-based Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems. More (Source: Space Daily - Apr 30)
ARIANESPACE’S VEGA SUCCESSFULLY LOFTS DZZ-HR SATELLITE - Arianespace launched the third Vega mission at the second attempt, completing a mission tasked with lofting Kazakhstan’s DZZ-HR Earth observation satellite, also known by the name KazEOSat-1, into a Sun-synchronous orbit. Launch occurred on time at 01:35 UTC (Wednesday UTC), with the rocket lifting off from pad ELA-1 at the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Apr 30)
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION’S ORBIT TO BE RAISED BY OVER 2 KILOMETERS - The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) will be corrected on Tuesday by raising it by 2.15 kilometers (1.3 miles), the Mission Control Center reported. “The maneuver will be carried out using the thrusters of Progress M-21M cargo spacecraft, which is currently docked with the station,” the center said. “The thrusters will be switched on at 11:45 Moscow time [7:45 GMT] and will stay operational for 566.8 seconds [about 9.5 minutes].” The station will be raised to the altitude of 415.2 kilometers (258 miles) and the adjustment is made to ensure better docking conditions of the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft, which is scheduled to blast off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on May 28 to bring a new crew to the ISS. More (Source: ITAR-TASS - Apr 30)
ARIANESPACE’S VEGA LAUNCH WITH DZZ-HR SATELLITE SCRUBBED - Arianespace has scrubbed its third launch of the Vega rocket, which was tasked with lofting Kazakhstan’s DZZ-HR Earth observation satellite, also known by the name KazEOSat-1, into a Sun-synchronous orbit on Monday evening. Lift off from pad ELA-1 at the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana was scheduled for 01:35 UTC (Tuesday), prior to a scrub being called just ahead of T-10 minutes. The four-stage launcher is tailored to carry the growing number of small scientific spacecraft and other lighter-weight payloads under development or planned worldwide. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Apr 29)
PROTON ROCKET DEPLOYS SATELLITE DUO INTO ORBIT - A Proton rocket delivered two communications satellites to orbit Monday after a nine-hour ascent from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, achieving a successful launch with payloads for Russia and Kazakhstan. The Luch 5V and Kazsat 3 spacecraft, both manufactured by Russian satellite-builder ISS Reshetnev, launched at 0425 GMT (12:25 a.m. EDT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The satellites were mounted on top of a Proton rocket, which roared away from the historic space base at 10:25 a.m. local time. The three-stage Proton booster and Breeze M upper stage put the dual-payload package in a preliminary orbit about 15 minutes later. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 29)
SATELLITE TO PROVIDE WEALTH OF DATA - Kazakhstan's first-ever Earth observation satellite is to be fired into orbit next week from the European spaceport in Kourou in French Guiana, launch company Arianespace said. The 830-kilogram orbiter will provide Kazakhstan with data for mapmaking and security, monitor changes in nature and agriculture, and provide support for rescue operations in case of natural disaster, it said in a statement. The satellite, dubbed KazEOSat-1, will take off on a lightweight Vega launcher overnight on Monday, Kourou time. More (Source: Independent Online - Apr 27)
M3M SATELLITE LAUNCH TO BE RESCHEDULED - COM DEV International Ltd., a leading manufacturer of space hardware subsystems, and majority owner in exactEarth(TM) Ltd, its maritime surveillance subsidiary, today announced that the Government of Canada has decided to not proceed with the planned Russian Soyuz launch of M3M, which was scheduled for June this year. The M3M satellite was constructed by COM DEV under contract from the Canadian Space Agency/Public Works Government Services Canada, for the Department of National Defense and was also subject to a commercial data sharing license with exactEarth(TM). More (Source: Wall Street Journal - Apr 26)
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