Latest News

Arianespace Soyuz Launches Russian Weather Satellite

By Staff Writer | September 21, 2009

      [Satellite TODAY 09-21-09] Arianespace and Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos launched a Meteor-M weather satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Thursday, the company announced Sept. 18.
          The satellite aims to restore Russia’s weather forecasting capabilities and is designed to gather data for weather forecasts, monitor the Earth’s ozone layer and radiation conditions in the upper atmosphere and provide information on ice hazards for maritime shipping in the polar regions
          Five smaller piggyback payloads were also placed on the target orbit, including the South African science research microsatellite, Sumbandila.
          The launch was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but was delayed for two days due to weather conditions.

      Related Stories-

      Thales Alenia Space Ships SMOS to Plesetsk Cosmodrome   Satellite Today   September 18, 2009
      [Satellite TODAY 09-18-09] Thales Alenia Space has shipped the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Earth observation satellite to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia, for its scheduled Nov. 2 launch.

      ISRO Loses Chandrayaan-1   Satellite Today   September 1, 2009
      [Satellite TODAY 09-01-09] The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) abandoned the Chandrayaan-1 lunar-orbiting satellite after scientists lost control of the satellite and failed to revive communication, ISRO officials announced.

      Russian Space Mission Control to Abandon KazSat-1   Satellite Today   August 25, 2009
      [Satellite TODAY 08-25-09] Russia s space mission control has placed the KazSat-1 satellite into a graveyard orbit in efforts to discard the spacecraft, according to reports.