Satellite News

Raytheon Company has completed the System Requirements Review (SRR) for the U.S. Air Force on the next-generation Global Positioning System (GPS) Control Segment (OCX).

Preliminary tests have confirmed that the fourth SAR-Lupe satellite, launched yesterday aboard a Kosmos 3M, is working properly, manufacturer OHB System reported.

Another Global Positioning System satellite is about to launch into space, replacing a craft more than 15 years old. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral aboard a Delta 2 rocket is scheduled for early Saturday morning at 2:09 a.m. EDT.

Astronauts Richard Linnehan and Garrett Reisman completed a 7-hour, 1-minute spacewalk overnight that prepare the Japanese logistics module for attachment to the space station and began assembly of a Canadian robot known as Dextre. The shuttle’s arm mounted the new module to station at 4:06 a.m.

America’s Atlas 5 rocket made its much-anticipated maiden mission from the West Coast early Thursday morning, piercing ground-hugging clouds and fog that blanketed the launch pad to send a secretive spy satellite into orbit.

Astronauts Richard Linnehan and Garrett Reisman will press ahead with a near full-duration spacewalk this evening to prepare a Japanese logistics module for attachment to the space station and to begin assembly of a Canadian robot known as Dextre. Canadian robotics experts, meanwhile, are working on a software patch that might resolve a problem preventing engineers from routing power to the robot’s components.

The inaugural launch of an Atlas 5 rocket from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base occurred as scheduled this morning, thundering skyward at 3:02 a.m. local time (6:02 a.m. EDT) carrying a classified national security satellite.

A high-tech Canadian robot, launched disassembled on large pallet, was moved from the Endeavour to a work site on the station early today. An initial attempt to route power to the pallet was not successful, but power is not required for the robot’s initial assembly and the astronauts were told to press ahead with preparations for a spacewalk Thursday night.