October 2018

MDA announced that it has shipped, as planned, the third and final satellite for the Radarsat Constellation Mission (RCM) that MDA is building for the Canadian Space Agency. The constellation will launch from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018102200

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft executed its second Asteroid Approach manoeuvre (AAM-2). The spacecraft’s main engine thrusters fired in a braking manoeuvre designed to slow the spacecraft’s speed relative to Bennu from 141 m/s to 5.2 m/s. Likewise, the spacecraft’s approach speed dropped from nearly 12,200 km to 450 km per day. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018102201

Orbit Logic said that NASA has selected the company’s STK Scheduler software for the Restore-L technology demonstration mission. During its mission, the Restore-L spacecraft will demonstrate the technologies required to rendezvous with, grasp, refuel and relocate a government-owned satellite. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018102202

exactEarth Ltd. announced that the Government of Canada will make an investment of C$7.2 million over three-years to support the development, management and expansion of exactView RT, the company’s real-time Satellite-AIS service. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018102203

UrtheCast Corp. announced that it has signed a binding contract for US$30 million to provide data from the company’s planned UrtheDaily satellite Constellation. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018102204

Rocket: Ariane 5 ECA; Payload: BepiColombo; Date: 20 October 2018, 0145:28 UTC; Launch site: Kourou, French Guiana. Signals from the spacecraft, received at ESA’s control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, via the New Norcia ground tracking station at 0221 UTC confirmed that the launch into its Earth escape trajectory was successful. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018102100

There’s been another delay in the launch of Canada’s three Earth-observation satellites known as the Radarsat Constellation. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018102101

Qualification tests on the Vinci engine which will power the Ariane 6 upper stage were completed with the 148th test, which took place on 12 October 12 on the PF52 test bench at ArianeGroup’s Vernon site. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018102102

The launches of the Russian Rokot-2 light carrier rockets may begin again in 2021 which would allow achieving annual incomes of over RUB8 billion (US$120 million) if the decision to resume the project is made this year. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018102103

Members of a Roskosmos commission and investigators have identified those who could be responsible in the damage to one of the sensing devices on board the Soyuz-FG rocket, which could have led to the failed launch of the Soyuz MS-10 manned spacecraft. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018102104