Satellite News

SpaceDev, Inc.has completed development of its next generation release device, the Low Shock Release Mechanism (LSRM).

The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), a suite of four telescopes for NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), has been delivered to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in preparation for a launch of SDO no earlier than December 2008.

The fifth in a series of eight modernised Global Positioning System Block IIR (GPS IIR-M) satellites built by Lockheed Martin for the U.S. Air Force is ready for launch aboard a Delta II rocket on 20 December from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The stop manoeuvre for GOES-12 was performed this morning, which means that the satellite is back at its operational geosynchronous position of 75 degrees West.

Reports of a two-week outage of India’s latest telecommunication satellite, INSAT 4CR, are “totally false and baseless” according to an ISRO spokesman.

Arab Satellite Communications Organisation (ArabSat) has signed a strategic agreement with Saudi Hollandi Bank for an Islamic facility that will secure Arabsat’s expansion over the next five years.

The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F-18 Block 5D-3 spacecraft, built under contract for the U.S. Air Force by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company has been delivered to Vandenberg Air Force Base in preparation for a July 2008 launch.

NASA recently approved the retargeting of the EPOXI mission for a flyby of comet Hartley 2.