Satellite News

The space shuttle Endeavour, carrying a crew of seven, a Japanese space station module and a high-tech Canadian robot with 11-foot-long arms, vaulted into orbit early today, lighting up the pre-dawn sky for miles around as it knifed through low clouds and rocketed away on a 16-day space station assembly mission.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will make an unprecedented “in your face” flyby of Saturn’s moon Enceladus on Wednesday, skirting along the edges of huge Old-Faithful-like geysers erupting from giant fractures on the south pole to sample scientifically valuable water-ice, dust and gas in the plume.

ICO Global Communications (Holdings) Limited (ICO) reported progress on two key regulatory proceedings before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and also reported that its ICO G1 spacecraft had arrived at Cape Canaveral in preparation for its launch on 14 April.

Lockheed Martin has submitted its proposal to NASA to design and build the spacecraft for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite – Series R (GOES-R), the next generation geostationary environmental satellites for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

SES Americom’s AMC-14 satellite is to be launched on 14 March, 2318 UTC aboard an International Launch Services Proton-M/Briz-M lifting off from the Baikonur cosmodrome.

ESA officials said that the anomaly in one of the four propulsion chains aboard the recently launched Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Jules Verne isn’t “anything serious.” Apart from that problem, the spacecraft is healthy.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) announced that it has signed a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office to carry their first Jumpstart mission payload onboard the upcoming Falcon 1 launch.

Space shuttle Endeavour’s flight will be a marathon five-spacewalk mission to the fast-growing international space station, delivering a Japanese module and Canadian robot. Read our comprehensive preview of STS-123.