Satellite News

Sea Launch will launch the Intelsat 21 communications satellite in the third quarter of 2012. The spacecraft will be lofted into an optimised geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) utilising the Sea Launch Zenit 3SL launch system.

ATK’s Liberty programme successfully held its Launch System Initial Systems Design (ISD) Review, which completes the third of five milestones in the company’s unfunded Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA for the Commercial Crew Development Program.

NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, shipped to Vandenberg Air Force Base, on 24 January to be mated to its Pegasus launch vehicle. The observatory will detect X-rays from objects ranging from our Ssun to giant black holes billions of light-years away. It is scheduled to launch 14 March from an aircraft operating out of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Before the reentry of Russia’s Fobos-Grunt Mars probe on 15 January, ESA established a final prediction for reentry of 1745 UTC, referring to an altitude of 10 km. Within the expected uncertainties, the prediction has been largely confirmed by observations.

Space Systems/Loral announced that it has been awarded a contract to provide a high power communications satellite. The company said that further information on the contract award will be released at a later date.

NEC Corporation announced the beginning of system design of asteroid explorer for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa 2 Project, a successor to the original Hayabusa asteroid explorer.

The U.S. Air Force has stopped work on the Defense Weather Satellite System to implement the FY 2012 National Defense Authorization Act and FY12 Consolidated Appropriations Act.

Russia’s Chibis-M microsatellite, which studies gamma-radiation generated by lightning in the atmosphere, separated from the Progress M-13M cargo vessel at 2318 UTC on 24 January.