Satellite News

COM DEV International Ltd. has received a contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) for the design and production of scientific instruments for its three-satellite Swarm mission. The company was also awarded an Authorization to Proceed (ATP) by EADS Astrium to build UHF active and passive microwave equipment for use in the German military communications satellite programme SatcomBW Step 2.

SES Global and Eutelsat Communications announced a joint investment in the first European satellite infrastructure for broadcasting video, radio and data to mobile devices and vehicle receivers. The 50/50 joint venture company will operate and commercialise the S-band payload on Eutelsat’s W2A.

NASA selected concept studies for missions that would return a sample of an asteroid, probe the chemistry of Venus’ atmosphere and reveal the interior structure and history of the Earth’s moon. Also selected for further study are three missions of opportunity that would make new use of two NASA spacecraft that have completed their primary objectives.

Galaxy Express, a consortium led by Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., plans the first launch of its GX rocket five years later than originally envisioned, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said.

ISRO said its cryogenic upper stage for GSLV was successfully hot tested on 28 October 2006 for a duration of 50 s. The test was carried out at the Liquid Propulsion Systems centre (LPSC) test complex at Mahendragiri.

Sea Launch said the launch of the XM 4 radio broadcast satellite was rescheduled for later today (UTC).

Rocket: Chang Zheng 3B; Payload: Sinosat 2 (Xinnuo 2); Date: 28 October 2006, 1620 UTC; Launch Site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. About 25 minutes after lift-off, the high-power broadcast satellite was successfully placed in geosynchronous transfer orbit.