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[Via Satellite 04-16-2014] Airbus has successfully completed the final integration and testing of Measat 3b. The satellite was transported to Kourou, French Guiana for a dual launch with the SSL-built Optus 10 by an Arianespace Ariane 5 launcher. Measat 3b is the 36th  satellite based on the Eurostar E3000, and was designed with 48 Ku-band...

[Via Satellite 04-11-2014] The top 100 scoring teams from across the United States in the Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) will travel to Great Meadow in The Plains, Va. to compete in TARC’s national finals on May 10. In this year’s challenge, teams must design and build a model rocket that can travel the distance...

[Via Satellite 04-11-2014] Arianespace launched the European Space Agency’s (ESA) first Copernicus environmental satellite, Sentinel 1A, on April 3 from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. This mission is the first of six that will comprise the core of Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring system. The program will provide data on the world’s land surfaces, oceans...

Currently in the midst of a massive constellation renewal effort, Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) is building out a fresh fleet of satellites that it hopes will propel the company into the industry’s top five. At SATELLITE 2014, Andrey Kirillovich, director of integration services and complex projects at RSCC, sat down with Via Satellite to outline...

[Via Satellite 04-07-2014] Sea Launch is relocating its corporate headquarters from Bern to Nyon, Switzerland, in the canton of Vaud. “This move allows Sea Launch to take advantage of Nyon’s strong talent pool, its excellent transport facilities, both by air and rail and is in close proximity to our EMEA customer base,” said Sergey Gugkaev,...

[Via Satellite 04-07-2014] NASA has granted Orbital Sciences a contract to launch the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) multi-satellite mission on board the Pegasus XL rocket. Orbital’s Stargazer L 1011 aircraft will carry the CYGNSS payload. The mission is planned for October 2016 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force station in Florida. The CYGNSS...

[Via Satellite 04-02-2014] Sea Launch has advised Eutelsat Communications to delay their planned April 15 launch of the Eutelsat 3B satellite. Sea Launch confirmed that during the final roll-out phase of integrated launch vehicle processing in support of the Eutelsat 3B mission, a discrepancy in the nominal movement of the cable-mast and the Zenit 2S...

[Via Satellite 03-31-2014] On March 27, Sea Launch celebrated the 15 year anniversary of the maiden launch of the Zenit 3ST ocean-based launch system with the DemoSat spacecraft. This inaugural launch validated the program concept and also demonstrated system capability. The payload for the first mission mimicked the mass properties of a 4,500 kilogram spacecraft,...

[Via Satellite 03-27-2014] The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has announced the launch of its second satellite, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System 1B (IRNSS 1B) to take place on April 4. The satellite will be launched aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC) SHAR at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh....

Jean-Michel Desobeau will never forget the Christmas of 1979. In the run-up to the holidays, Arianespace was working against the clock to launch the Ariane 1 rocket. It had become a matter of pride to