Satellite News

NASA partner Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has completed an important design review of the crewed version of its Dragon spacecraft. The concept baseline review presented NASA with the primary and secondary design elements of its Dragon capsule designed to carry astronauts into low Earth orbit, including the International Space Station.

When the European Data Relay System launches its second satellite in 2015, it will be taking the Hylas-3 communications package along for the ride thanks to ESA’s ‘hosted payload’ approach.

CGS SpA Compagnia Generale per lo Spazio, Milan, a subsidiary of OHB AG, and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) signed a contract for Definition Phases A/B1 for the realisation of the OPSIS (OPtical System for Imaging and Surveillance) satellite and relevant ground segment. The contract has a value of EUR13.5 million.

ESA’s newest space technology facility has been inaugurated in Valencia, Spain. The ESA- Valencia Space Consortium High-Power Space Materials Laboratory is specially equipped to investigate how different materials endure the potentially destructive effects of operating powerful radio systems in space.

Avanti Communications Group plc published a trading update for the year ending 30 June 2012.

ESA’s first two Galileo navigation satellites in space have achieved their latest milestone, transmitting dummy signals in a modulation scheme designed to allow full interoperability with the U.S. GPS once operational services start.

NBN Co, building a wholesale-only national broadband network (NBN) designed to deliver high-speed Internet to all Australians no matter where they live, has selected ViaSat Inc. to provide the ground-based communications, network management, and data processing systems for the Long Term Satellite Service component of the project.

Since the beginnings of space endeavours in 1957, mankind has been leaving behind a trail of debris orbiting Earth. Risks to satellites and other space exploration equipment are continuously increasing due to the large amount of debris that has accumulated in more than 50 years of human space activity.