Planet’s Flock 2E’-2 Earth-imaging satellite re-entered the atmosphere on November 30, 2017 – decaying 18 months after being released from the International Space Station to join Planet’s orbiting constellation of Doves that image the entire Earth at least once per day.
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Russia suffered its first launch failure of 2017 on Tuesday on the second Soyuz mission carried out from the new Vostochny Cosmodrome in the country’s far east, claiming the loss of the Meteor-M 2-1 weather satellite and an international assortment of small satellites.
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Russia’s Soyuz 2-1B rocket lifted off from the 1S launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome at 5:41 UTC on November 28, 2017 with the Meteor-M 2-1 weather satellite and 18 small satellites riding as secondary payloads.
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Russia’s Soyuz 2-1B rocket lifted off from the 1S launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome at 5:41 UTC on November 28, 2017 with the Meteor-M 2-1 weather satellite and 18 small satellites riding as secondary payloads.
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Iridium 8 re-entered the atmosphere on November 24, 2017 after over 20 years in orbit as part of the original Iridium Communications Constellation, a low-orbiting satellite system for global communications including voice and point-to-point data services via 66 active satellites in six orbital planes.
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China was in action for the second time this week on Friday with the launch of a trio of Yaogan-30 satellites atop a Long March 2C rocket to join a growing constellation of what are believed to be electronic intelligence-gathering satellites residing in non-synchronous Low Earth Orbits 600 Kilometers in altitude.
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China’s Long March 6 rocket carried out its second flight on Tuesday to lift a trio of Jilin-1 high-resolution video satellites into orbit to join a growing constellation of commercial Earth observation satellites.
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The Molniya 3-3 (Molniya-3 13L) communications Satellite re-entered the atmosphere on November 19, 2017 after over 40 years in orbit.
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The second-to-last Delta II rocket lit up the night over California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base in the early hours on Saturday, taking to the skies with the JPSS-1 Weather Satellite for NASA and NOAA, set to become America’s primary meteorological spacecraft in Polar Orbit.
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The penultimate Delta II rocket lifted off from SLC-2W at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on Saturday, November 18, 2017 at 9:47:36 UTC with the first satellite in the Joint Polar Satellite System
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The penultimate Delta II rocket lifted off from SLC-2W at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on Saturday, November 18, 2017 at 9:47:36 UTC with the first satellite in the Joint Polar Satellite System.
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The penultimate Delta II rocket encountered a second launch scrub on Wednesday, keeping the first satellite in the Joint Polar Satellite System grounded for at least another day
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China launched a Long March 4C rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 18:40 UTC on Tuesday, carrying into orbit the Fengyun-3D weather satellite, joining China’s polar-orbiting constellation of meteorological satellites
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The Cygnus S.S. Gene Cernan arrived at the International Space Station on Tuesday for a robotic capture and berthing to become a temporary part of the orbiting laboratory for the delivery of over three metric tons of supplies, maintenance gear and research.
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ULA’s Delta II rocket was forced to abandon a nighttime launch attempt from California in the early hours on Tuesday due to a technical issue with the rocket’s second stage engine actuator as well as a fouled range with boasts in the offshore hazard area where the vehicle’s ground-lit boosters were expected to impact.
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Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser mastered a critical Approach-to-Landing Test this weekend at California’s Edwards Air Force Base, coming four years after a similar test ended up with the winged space plane somersaulting into the desert sand due to one of two main landing gear failing to deploy.
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The penultimate Delta II rocket stands ready for an early morning liftoff from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on Tuesday with the first operational satellite of the Joint Polar Satellite System, the next generation of low-orbiting weather satellites operated by NASA and NOAA.
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