Satellite News

Astronauts aboard the ISS have found a problem with the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ) installed four months ago. A quick inspection revealed metal shavings and unusual wear on part of the joint, which is used to rotate two of the station’s solar arrays.

SES Astra has signed an agreement with the Spanish pay-TV operator Sogecable to use an additional transponder.

Only three of Taiwan’s six Formosat 3 microsatellites are fully functioning, the head of the country’s National Science Council (NSC) said.

China’s lunar probe Chang’e-1 is expected to arrive at an apogee of more than 70,000 kilometers from the Earth on early Saturday morning after having completed its second orbital manoeuvre today, Xinhua reported.

Taiwan plans to use a locally made rocket to launch its satellites by 2010, National Science Council Chairman Chen Chien-jen said at a legislative hearing.

The launch of the first pan-African satellite, Rascom 1, is scheduled for 18 December, the Sudan News Agency reported.

Rocket: Proton K/Block DM; Payload: three Uragan navigation satellites (likely designation Kosmos 2431, 2432 and 2433); Date: 26 October 2007, 0735 UTC; Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The spacecraft successfully separated about 3 1/2 hours later from the upper stage.

Lockheed Martin has won two of five awards given annually by the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) for excellence in systems engineering.