Satellite News

The president and chief executive officer of Spacehab Inc. has announced his retirement, effective 31 December. Michael E. Kearney announced his decision to step down at the company’s annual shareholders meeting.

Canadian companies will not participate in the construction of ESA’s ExoMars rover, CBC News reported. The Canadian government has turned down a request by the country’s space industry to support an ExoMars contract, the report said.

A solar outburst on 6 December produced a record amount of radio noise, said solar physicist Dale Gary, chair of the department of physics at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Owing to a computer software failure, initial research reports in the U.S. downplayed the outbursts.

Recent solar activity has forced ESA mission controllers to react to anomalies or take action to avoid damage to spacecraft. Several missions, including Integral, Cluster and Envisat, felt the storm’s effects. Apparently, the International Space Station’s attitude control system was also affected.

U.S. Air Force officials cleared TacSat 2 for launch on 16 December after a software glitch had grounded it and the Minotaur I rocket carrying it.