Satellite News

The Space Data Association (SDA), established by commercial satellite operators to improve the safety and efficiency of space operations, announced the results of its analysis related to the imminent approach of the DA14 asteroid, concluding that there are no satellites threatened by the asteroid.

Skybox Imaging (Skybox), an emerging provider of timely satellite imagery and data services, announced it is adding an imaging satellite, SkySat-2, to its fleet during 2013 via a newly available secondary launch opportunity aboard a Soyuz-Fregat.

The BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) Mechanical and Propulsion Bus (MPB) Proto-Flight Model (PFM) has been baked out in the Phenix thermal vacuum facility at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. This process involved heating the MPB to 60 degrees C in a vacuum for 20 days to remove any contaminants that would outgas in space.

Electric rocket engines known as Hall thrusters, which use a high-velocity stream of ions to propel a spacecraft in space, have been used successfully onboard many missions for half a century. Erosion of the discharge channels walls, however, has limited their application to the inner solar system. A research team at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has found a way to effectively control this erosion by shaping the engine’s magnetic field in a way that shields the walls from ion bombardment.

Lockheed Martin’s (LMT) second-generation Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system achieved its first intercept using tracking information from the space tracking and surveillance system demonstration satellites during a Missile Defense Agency (MDA) test.

Astrium and its partner Actia Sodielec, specialists in military telecommunications, have been awarded the Comcept contract by the French defence procurement agency (DGA). The contract will run for 17 years.