Palapa D1, owned by Indonesian telco Indosat, suffered a third stage launcher mishap on August 31 during the launch sequence from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Southwest China’s Sichuan province. Consequently the satellite was placed in an unusable orbit.
Failure occurred 20 minutes after liftoff as the third stage was scheduled to ignite for the second burn of the launch. The 13 metre long third stage, powered by two YF-75 liquid hydrogen and oxygen engines capable of generating 35,000 pounds of thrust used on most long March launchers has never failed …

South Korea’s indigenous KSLV-1 launcher lifted off from the Naro Space Centre on August 25, but failed to launch a scientific observation satellite into low Earth orbit.
A previous launch attempt several days earlier was halted when “abnormal data’ was observed during the automated launch sequence.
The launch had been postponed on five previous occasions: — the end of 2007, end of 2008, the second quarter of 2009 and July 30 and August 11, due to Russia’s refusal to transfer technology or problems in acquiring components.
The KSLV-1 launcher is a mix of …

Publicly listed telecommunications firm PT Indonesian Satellite Corporation Tbk (Indosat) is set to launch its second satellite later this month.
Palapa D1 is scheduled to be launched from the Xichang Launch Centre, China on August 31 aboard a Long March 3B launcher.
The satellite, said to have cost US$220 million, was built by Thales Alenia Space and based on their Spacebus 4000B3 platform will carry 35 C band and 5 Ku band transponders.
This satellite has been built without the use of any US made components and this allowed the satellite to be …

Arianespace has successfully launched
JCSAT-12 for Japan’s Sky Perfect JSAT and Optus D3 destined to be co located with Optus C1 at 156 East.
The launch was made using the Ariane 5 launcher from French Guinea with a one hour launch window starting at 22:09GMT, (08:09 AEST). A replay of the succesful launch is viewable on the web at http://www.videocorner.tv/.
The Optus D3 satellite will allow a quite significant capacity increase for customers locatedin Australia and New Zealand with Pay TV provider Foxtel already announcing 20 additional services to be added to their platform by the end of …

Asiasat 5 has arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome accompanied by a team from Space Systems Loral. The satellite, built by SSL is based on their well known Star 1300 bus, and will be launched on a Proton Breeze M rocket mid August.  The Proton launch vehicle, utilizing a 4-burn Breeze M will lift off from Pad 39 sometime mid August .  The first three stages of the Proton will use a standard ascent profile to place the Orbital Unit (Breeze M upper stage and AsiaSat 5) into a sub-orbital trajectory.  …

Arianespace will launch two new satellites into orbit on the 21st of August, the launcher will carry JCSAT-12 for Japan’s Sky Perfect JSAT and Optus D3 destined to be co located with Optus C1 at 156 East.

The launch will be made using the Ariane 5 launcher from French Guinea with a one hourlaunch window starting at 22:09GMT, (08:09 AEST). The launch will be viewable on the web at http://www.videocorner.tv/.
The Optus D3 satellite will allow a quite significant capacity increase for customers locatedin Australia and New Zealand with Pay TV provider Foxtel …

Hot on the heels of GeoEye 1 (see PSN Sept. & Oct 08) comes Worldview 2, promoted as the worlds technologically advanced, highest resolution space imaging satellite, capable of 8 band multispectral imaging. The satellite, which will become part of an existing constellation of 2 satellites will are already operated by Digital Globe Inc., a US imaging company based in Colorado.
The satellite will be capable of collecting 975,000 square kilometers of imagery each day, and by adopting a Sun synchronous orbit at an altitude of 770 kilometers, will have an …

Asia Broadcast Satellite has selected Space Systems Loral (SSL) to manufacture the ABS-2 spacecraft to be co-located with ABS-1 at 75 degrees east longitude. The satellite is to be launched in 2012 from French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 launcher.
ABS-2 will be the world’s most powerful commercial satellite ever launched in the Asia Pacific Region with 78 Ka, Ku and C band transponders, and a total output power capability of 14 kW. The satellite will be fueled for a service life of 15 years and will weigh over 6000kg at …

HOT BIRD 10

When you need to fix a satellite there is only one way to do it. Launch another one!
Fancy watching the behind the scenes of a satellite launch? From payload integration to training with the French Foreign Legion who guard the launch site, National Geographic’s World’s Toughest Fixes has it all promises to be a must see for the sat enthusiast. 
The show, due to air from the 4th June, takes a behind the scenes look at the launch of the $250m HOT BIRD 10 satellite on an Ariane 5 rocket. …

China launched its second “Compass” (also known as Beidou 2) satellite on April 15 as part of a constellation of up to 30 satellites which will form the country’s own GPS network..
The satellite was launched from the Xichang Launch Centre, located in the southwest Sichuan province aboard a Long March 3 launcher.
China intends to launch the complete constellation by 2015 and another 10 satellites by the end of 2010.  The system is designed to provide  support for telecommunications, public security services, meteorological, prospecting, disaster recovery and petroleum exploration.
It is expected …