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Dulles VA (SPX) Apr 27, 2010 Orbital Sciences has announced that the SES-1 satellite, built by the company for SES WORLD SKIES, was successfully launched into orbit aboard an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The mission began on Saturday, April 24, with the lift-off of the Proton space launch vehicle at 7:18 a.m. (EDT). The satellite successfully separated from the Proton rocket's Breeze M upper stage eight hours and 58 minutes after liftoff. Mr. Christopher Richmond, Orbital's Senior Vice President and head of its communications satellite business unit, said, "Following the launch of the SES-1 satellite on Saturday, we are very pleased with the progress of the mission so far. The ILS Proton accurately delivered the satellite into its intended orbit and the spacecraft has been performing nominally since its separation from the launch vehicle. Together with the engineering team from SES WORLD SKIES, we have begun the process of in-orbit testing that will be carried out over the next several weeks." Mr. Richmond added, "With the launch of SES-1, the second company-built commercial communications satellite to be launched in 2010, we are well into a very busy year during which a total of five geosynchronous orbit communications satellites are scheduled to be delivered and launched for customers around the world." Orbital designed, built and tested the SES-1 spacecraft at the company's satellite manufacturing facility in Dulles, VA. The state-of-the-art satellite will replace SES' existing AMC-2 and AMC-4 spacecraft at the 101 degrees West longitude orbital position. The satellite carries 24 C-band transponders as well as 24 Ku-band transponders and has been designed to provide in-orbit services for 15 years. The SES-1 satellite is based on Orbital's Star 2.4 platform and will generate approximately five kilowatts of payload power. Orbital is also building two other satellites for SES WORLD SKIES. Currently, the SES-2 and SES-3 spacecraft are in production and testing at the company's Dulles, VA facilities. Together, the three SES spacecraft will deliver full 50-state coverage of the U.S. in both C- and Ku-band frequencies from their strategically important orbital locations.
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Pratt And Whitney Rocketdyne Powers Launch Of X-37BWest Palm Beach FL (SPX) Apr 26, 2010 Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne has helped boost into orbit the U.S. military's X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle. The mission was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The Atlas V is powered by the RD AMROSS RD-180 booster engine and a Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne RL10 upper-stage engine. Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne is a unit of United Te ... read more |
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