Satellite News

SpaceX has successfully completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) for its first Falcon 9 / Dragon mission as part of the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration programme.

NASA announced it will conduct a new competition for funding that remains in the agency’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Project after a final decision to terminate its funded agreement with Rocketplane Kistler (RpK).

GigaSat, a supplier of specialist satellite systems to the media and broadcast industries, announced it has been awarded and delivered a contract for the manufacture, integration and supply of a fully redundant Ku-band fixed satellite Earth station with full remote control and monitoring capability to BBC News.

BAE Systems said that two of the company’s RAD750 radiation-hardened single-board computers are managing the command and control functions onboard the WorldView-1 satellite, launched on 18 September aboard a Delta II rocket.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has successfully completed the Space Test Program Standard Interface Vehicle (STP-SIV) Critical Design Review (CDR) for the United States Air Force.

NASA senior managers completed a detailed review of space shuttle Discovery’s readiness for flight and selected 23 October as the official launch date, despite an independent panel’s recommendation to first replace three thermal tiles on the shuttle.

Rocket: Delta II 7925-9.5; Payload: GPS IIR-17(M); Date: 17 October 2007, 1223 UTC; Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. Following a nominal 1 hour and 8 minute flight, the rocket successfully deployed the spacecraft.

TC-1, one of the two satellites of the CNSA/ESA Double Star mission, was decommissioned after four years in orbit on 14 October, re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and burnt up.