A European-built communications satellite has arrived at Cape Canaveral for fueling and final launch preparations ahead of a planned late February liftoff aboard a Falcon 9 rocket with a previously-flown first stage booster.
A former space shuttle orbital maneuvering system engine has been delivered to Germany for attachment to the European-built service module destined to steer NASA’s next Orion spacecraft on a course around the moon on an uncrewed test flight in late 2018.
An Ariane 5 rocket took off on a rare morning launch Thursday with four Galileo navigation satellites, the heavy-lifter’s first flight in support of the European positioning and timing fleet. Liftoff from French Guiana occurred at 1306 GMT (8:06 a.m. EST).
Take a walk around the Ariane 5 launch pad in French Guiana after the 16-story rocket arrived at the complex for liftoff Thursday with four European Galileo navigation satellites.
An Ariane 5 rocket rolled out to its tropical launch pad in French Guiana this week leading up to Thursday’s launch of four Galileo navigation satellites for the European Commission.
Four satellites fastened to the top of an Ariane 5 rocket will grow Europe’s space-based Galileo navigation network Thursday morning with a launch from the South American jungle.
An Ariane 5 launcher uniquely modified to loft four of Europe’s Galileo navigation satellites on one flight has received its payload for liftoff next week in French Guiana.
Eight satellites blasted off Monday on top of an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, including an instrument to track tropical cyclones, a pathfinder for a U.S.-owned commercial Earth observation fleet, and multiple spacecraft for Algeria.
Europe’s solid-fueled Vega booster vaulted away from a launch pad in the South American jungle late Thursday and deftly delivered five sharp-eyed Earth observation satellites into two different orbits for the Peruvian government and a Google-owned mapping company.
Two orbits. Five satellites. Five upper stage burns. Follow the key events scheduled during the European Vega rocket’s launch of the PeruSat 1 high-resolution reconnaissance satellite and four commercial eyes-in-the-sky owned by Google’s Terra Bella imaging company.