Satellite News

Globecomm Systems Inc. has received an award under a Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract from a U.S. Government customer valued at US$11.7 million.

The downlink phased array antenna developed by Northrop Grumman Corporation for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (EHF) military satellite communications payload has completed range tests that confirmed performance predictions.

Four university teams will share US$100 million to provide experiments and supporting hardware for the Radiation Belt Storm Probes, a future NASA mission to study near-Earth space radiation. This type of radiation is hazardous to astronauts, orbiting satellites and aircraft flying high altitude polar routes.

AirLaunch announced that its industry-U.S. government team has dropped successfully a 32-metric ton rocket from a C-17 cargo aircraft. The rocket, a full-scale simulated AirLaunch QuickReach, was the largest single object to be dropped from a C-17 as part of the DARPA/Air Force Falcon Small Launch Vehicle Program.

The committee set up to look into the failed mission of GSLV-F02 was making satisfactory progress and would come out with its findings within a month, according to ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair.

A manufacturing defect is said to have caused the Ukrainian-Russian Dnepr launch vehicle carrying 18 satellites to crash shortly after lift-off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on 26 July. In related news, the rocket’s fuel did not burn up before or as it impacted, as Russian officials had earlier claimed.

Comtech Mobile Datacom Corporation received a US$1.7 million contract to support the First Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF). The contract is part of I MEF’s comprehensive plan to provide satellite-based position and location reporting capabilities to Iraqi Army and security forces.

The number one winner NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration programme is SpaceX, which will receive US$278 million. Number two, Rocketplane Kistler (RpK), has won a US$207 million award.