Satellite News

Measat Satellite Systems Sdn. Bhd. was awarded “Regional Satellite Operator of the Year” in the Excellence in Satellite Management Awards at the 12th World Summit for Satellite Financing in Paris, France.

SES Astra announced that it has signed the first capacity agreement with a customer for its African capacity Astra 4A at the orbital position 5 degrees East.

The first use of the ‘bundle’ protocol in space has been demonstrated with the UK-DMC satellite built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL). Sensor data was successfully delivered from the satellite using this disruption- and delay-tolerant networking protocol designed for the Interplanetary Internet.

COM DEV International Ltd. announced its third quarter financial results for the three-month period ending 31 July 2008.

The Indian government has approved the GPS satellite-based augmentation system GAGAN (Geostationary Augmentation and Navigation), which is maily to be used for air traffic.

OHB-System AG, a subsidiary of the European space technology group OHB Technology AG, has been awarded a contract by the Science Directorate of the European Space Agency ESA for the execution of an assessment study for the “Marco Polo” asteroid mission.

Russia’s Khrunichev Space Center said it continued to build the Ekspress-MD1 satellite, scheduled for launch at the end of this year.

Rocket: Soyuz-U; Payload: Progress M-65 (Progress P30); Date: 10 September 2008, 1950 UTC; Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The spacecraft was due to arrive at the ISS on 12 September, but docking has been delayed because NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas/USA was closed because of an approaching storm.