Satellite News

ProtoStar Ltd. and Antrix, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), announced an agreement to jointly provide 216 MHz of interim satellite capacity to support the expanding direct-to-home (DTH) television demand in India. In related news, ProtoStar for the first time also gave a launch date for its second planned satellite — surprisingly a Boeing 601HP model.

Raytheon Company successfully completed the final system acceptance test to augment standard Global Positioning System signals over India.

Spacehab, Incorporated announced that in accordance with the milestone requirements of its Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA, the company hosted a formal Systems Requirements Review of its Advanced Research and Conventional Technology Utilisation Spacecraft (ARCTUS) recently at its Houston Headquarters facility.

Chang’e I has started scientific observation of the moon, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said.

Lockheed Martin has delivered the core propulsion module for the second satellite in the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) military communications system.

Weather conditions once more have delayed the launch of the Thuraya 3 phone satellite aboard a Zenit 3SL.

“There’s fire, smoke, the ground shakes, the windows rattle, some dogs howl. But most of us don’t bother to go out and look. It’s clearer on TV.” — A Xichang resident about rocket launches from the nearby launch centre, cited by the Los Angeles Times

An unnamed Computer Weekly author is amused that the UK’s latest milcomsat is named Skynet 5B [which proves that he or she probably watches too many motion pictures of doubtful quality–Ed.]