An Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL air-launched rocket is in final preparation to send a NASA scientific satellite into polar orbit to study a poorly understood region of the Sun’s atmosphere in unprecedented detail. The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (Iris) will combine an ultraviolet telescope and a multi-channel imaging spectrograph to study the interface region between the visible surface of the Sun and its upper atmosphere, which is the source of most of the Sun’s UV radiation.

KOUROU, French Guiana — French space agency CNES and the European Space Agency (ESA) are evaluating near-term options for boosting the payload capacity of the Ariane 5 ECA through hardware improvements that officials say could quickly enhance the launch vehicle’s performance ahead of a planned midlife upgrade already underway.

International Launch Services (ILS) successfully placed the SES-6 satellite into a super-synchronous transfer orbit (SSTO) atop a Russian Proton launch vehicle June 3. The Proton lifted off from Pad 39 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying the Astrium-bult SES-6, which weighed over 6 metric tons at liftoff. After a 15-hr., 31-min. mission, the satellite was placed into the target orbit by the Proton launcher. The launch marks the Reston, Va.-based company’s second SSTO mission with the Proton vehicle.

SATS BANKROLLED: The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) has authorized a $343.3 million direct loan to Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. (AsiaSat) to finance the purchase of two Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) communications satellites, plus launch services. SS/L is building AsiaSat 6, a C-band satellite, and AsiaSat 8, a mixed Ku/Ka-band satellite, under a contract announced in November 2011. The launches, to be carried out by SpaceX, are planned for the first half of 2014.

Boeing’s seven-person CST-100 spacecraft has completed integrated wind-tunnel testing of scaled versions of the capsule and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V launch vehicle as well as oxygen flow assessments for the two-engine Centaur upper stage.

Gravity-mapping data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (Grail) orbiters and the computer simulation of millions of years of lunar cooling have given planetary scientists a better understanding of the variations in the Moon’s gravity that can throw lunar orbiters off course.

Lightweight rocket being prepared for inaugural launch next year

Control moment gyros have stabilized spacecraft for decades