Satellite News

Rocket: PSLV-C37; Payload: Cartosat 2D, INS 1A, INS 1B, Flock-3p 1 to 88, Lemur-2 22 to 29, BGUSat, DIDO 2, PEASSS, Al-Farabi 1, Nayif 1; Date: 15 February 2017, 0358 UTC; Launch site: Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, India. All 104 satellites were successfully deployed.

Iridium Communications Inc. announced it has received a targeted launch date of mid-June for the second mission of ten Iridium NEXT satellites. Originally anticipated for mid-April of 2017, the date has shifted due to a backlog in SpaceX’s launch manifest as a result of last year’s anomaly on 1 September.

Hughes Network Systems announced the successful completion of in-orbit testing and handover of EchoStar XIX from Space Systems Loral (SSL), manufacturers of this Ka-band high-throughput satellite.

NASA has awarded a contract to Ball Aerospace for continued spacecraft operations support for the NOAA/NASA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite. The sole source contract has a maximum ordering period of five years beginning 7 March 2017.