Posted: Sun, Sep 1 9:33 AM ET (1333 GMT)
A small launch vehicle operated by the commercial arm of a Chinese company placed two satellites into orbit Friday. The Kuaizhou-1A rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 7:41 pm EDT (2341 GMT) and placed the KX-09 and Xiaoxiang-1 (07) smallsats into sun-synchronous orbits. KX-09 is a microgravity experiment for the Chinese Academy of Sciences while Xiaoxiang-1 (07) will test air traffic control technology for Chinese firm Spacety. The launch was carried out by Expace, a commercial subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, a major contractor for the Chinese space program, and it the latest in a surge of small launch vehicle developments in China.

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
•  NASASpaceFlight.com article
•  Xinhua article

Posted: Sun, Sep 1 9:24 AM ET (1324 GMT)
A Rockot vehicle launched a small satellite for Russia's military Friday. The Rockot lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 10:00 am EDT (1400 GMT) carrying the Geo-IK-2 No.13L satellite, placing it into low Earth orbit. The satellite will collect data on the Earth's gravitational field for use in refining models of it employed by missiles and other military systems. Russian military officials said the no longer plan to use the Rockot, a converted ballistic missile, although Roscosmos plans at least one more launch of the vehicle.

Related Links:

•  NASASpaceFlight.com article
•  TASS article

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