Satellite News

Rocket: Chang Zheng 3C/YZ-1; Payload: Beidou-3 M1 (?); Date: 30 March 2015, 1352 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. The rocket appears to have lifted off as planned, but further details were not immediately available.

QinetiQ has been awarded a contract worth EUR16 million over three years to develop the computer and avionics for the European Space Agency’s Proba-3 satellite mission.

Russian Satellite Communication Company’s Ekspress-AM7, which was injected into a transfer orbit by a Proton-M/Briz-M on 18 March 2015 (UTC), reached geostationary orbit on 25 March 2015.

DirecTV 15, the most powerful U.S. broadcast satellite, has left Airbus Defence and Space’s cleanrooms in Toulouse (France). It will now be shipped to Kourou for launch by Ariane 5 in May 2015.

The team operating NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity learned last week that the long-lived rover experienced a brief amnesia event related to its flash memory, the first since a reformatting of that nonvolatile type of memory a week earlier.

NewSat entered into a trading halt on 26 March 2015 after announcing that it is in ongoing negotiations with lenders in the United States. On 30 March , the company requested in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) for the trading halt to remain in place until negotiations are concluded.

Avanti Communications has been appointed by the UK Space Agency to deliver a crucial air navigation project in Africa, SBAS-Africa, powered by satellite technology. The satellite operator has been awarded the contract under the agency’s International Partnership Space Programme (IPSP), which exists to open up opportunities for the UK space sector to share expertise in real-world satellite technology and services overseas.