Tag: Earth observation
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Indian rocket set for liftoff with Brazilian satellite
Brazil’s Amazonia 1 satellite and 18 co-passengers will rocket into orbit on an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle fitted with two strap-on solid rocket boosters. Credit: ISRO A Brazilian satellite designed to track deforestation in the Amazon rainforest will rocket into orbit on top of an Indian launcher late Saturday (U.S. time). A Polar Satellite…
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Photos: Soyuz launches French military satellite
Check out imagery from Arianespace and the French space agency showing the launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket Dec. 29 from the Guiana Space Center in South America. The Soyuz ST-A rocket and Fregat upper stage delivered the French military’s CSO 2 optical reconnaissance satellite to an orbit around 300 miles (480 kilometers) above Earth…
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French military surveillance satellite launched by Soyuz rocket
A Soyuz ST-A rocket fires off its launch pad in French Guiana with the CSO 2 spacecraft. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – P. Piron An optical reconnaissance satellite for the French military took off atop a Soyuz launcher Tuesday, riding the Russian-made rocket from a tropical spaceport in South America into…
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Live coverage: Soyuz lifts off from French Guiana
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana with the CSO 2 optical reconnaissance satellite for the French military. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Arianespace’s live video stream begins at 1627 GMT (11:27 a.m. EST) and will be available here. If you appreciate what we…
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China launches secret military spy payload
A Long March 4C rocket took off Sunday with the Yaogan 33 satellite. Credit: Xinhua A secret Chinese military payload, believed to be a surveillance satellite, successfully flew into space Sunday aboard a Long March 4C rocket on China’s 39th and final scheduled orbital launch attempt of the year. The military satellite and a smaller…
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French military spysat set for launch Monday
Artist’s illustration of a CSO satellite. Credit: Airbus A sharp-eyed French military surveillance spacecraft is set for launch aboard a Soyuz rocket Monday from French Guiana into a 300-mile-high orbit, where it will collect the highest-resolution imagery ever produced by a European reconnaissance satellite. A Russian Soyuz ST-A rocket rolled out to its launch pad…
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China’s Long March 8 rocket successful in debut launch
A Long March 8 rocket lifts off from Sunday (U.S. time) from the Wenchang launch base on Hainan Island. Credit: Xinhua A new Chinese launch vehicle, the Long March 8, has successfully placed five payloads into orbit on its first mission, debuting an expendable booster intended to eventually be outfitted for recovery and reuse. The…
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Arianespace targets early 2021 for Vega return-to-flight
File photo of a Vega launch in 2018. Credit: ESA – S. Corvaja Presenting the results of an inquiry into a European Vega rocket failure last month, officials said Friday that misleading instructions and inadequate preflight checks caused teams to overlook wrongly-installed cables on the launcher’s upper stage steering system. Arianespace and European Space Agency…
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Rocket Lab closes out year with launch of Synspective’s first radar satellite
A Rocket Lab Electron launcher takes off from New Zealand on Tuesday. Credit: Rocket Lab Rocket Lab’s seventh and final launch of the year delivered a small radar observation satellite into orbit for Synspective, a Japanese startup planning a fleet of 30 or more Earth-imaging spacecraft providing day-and-night imagery of cities around the world. The…
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China launches Earth-observation satellite for stereo mapping
A Long March 3B rocket lifts off from the Xichang launch base at 11:58 a.m. Beijing time Sunday with the Gaofen 14 satellite. Credit: Xinhua China launched an optical stereo mapping satellite Sunday, using an upgraded version of the country’s Long March 3B rocket with an extended payload shroud to deliver the Earth-imaging spacecraft into…