How fast is the SkyRanger?

Solution 1:

You should be good. The Skyranger is much faster than the old aircraft from X-Com the First, and is able to respond to most missions (one way) in under 2 hours.

As point of comparison, I've recently run into a situation where I shot down an Alien UFO, and before I could launch a team to handle the crash, a Terror Site popped up (which is obviously going to be the priority).

Responding to the terror site shouldn't take any longer than 8 hours (and that's a conservative estimate), giving you plenty of time to launch your satellites before the council report.

Solution 2:

The answer is "fast enough it delays everything else." Turns out the council report won't come in while the Skyranger is on route to or returning from a mission. Same for any event, actually, including facility construction or manufacturing.

If the report should happen during the flight, it will happen instead on the next time you click Mission Control. Note that the event queue may lose track of the council report, and indicate it's 30 days until the next one, but don't let that worry you.

In summary: you can fly to the event, deal with it, and then launch satellites. Just make sure you've launched them before you click on Mission Control, as the council report will be instant - it doesn't wait for you to click "Scan for Events."