Satellite News

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. could be sold for US$500 million, the Financial Times reported.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) injected the Kaguya main satellite in its scheduled orbit and shifted its operation mode to the regular control mode.

A successful re-ignition of the Ariane 5 upper stage engine performed during the most recent mission has consolidated Ariane 5’s readiness for the launch of the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle, ESA said.

International Launch Services (ILS) has scheduled its next Proton Briz M commercial mission for 18 November from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, with the launch of the Sirius 4 satellite for SES Sirius of Sweden.

Rocket: Soyuz FG/Fregat; Payload: four Globalstar satellites; Date: 20 October 2007, 2012 UTC; Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The upper stage accurately injected the four satellites into the targeted low Earth orbit at 920 km altitude.

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.