Satellite News

At its meeting held on 17-18 October 2007 in Paris, ESA’s Space Science Advisory Committee (SSAC) selected the new candidates for possible future scientific missions.

The MESSENGER spacecraft delivered a critical deep-space manoeuvre — 250 million kilometers from Earth — successfully firing its large bi-propellant engine to change the probe’s trajectory and target it for its first flyby of Mercury on 14 January 2008.

On 18 October at 1706 UTC, Rosetta’s thrusters were fired in a planned, 42-second trajectory correction manoeuvre designed to ‘fine tune’ the comet-chasing spacecraft’s approach to Earth. Rosetta is now approaching Earth for the second planetary swing-by of 2007.

Japan’s first lunar probe, Kaguya,had been successfully put into observation orbit around the moon, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.

GeoEye, Inc. has contracted with ITT Corporation to begin work on the camera for GeoEye’s next satellite, GeoEye-2.

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) may bid for the new Commercial Orbital Transportation Services demonstration (COTS) contract, a report suggests.