Satellite News

NASA issued a Request for Information, or RFI, to gauge interest and solicit ideas from private companies in providing communications and navigation services that would support the development of exploration, scientific and commercial capabilities on the moon over the next 25 years.

Vietnam plans to launch its second satellite after the successful launch of Vinasat-1 earlier this year.

A few more details have emerged regarding the apparently failed launch of an Iranian Safir 1 rocket.

Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center have completed a series of tests on a key component of the J-2X engine. The J-2X powers the upper stage of the Ares I rocket, whose first launch currently is scheduled for 2015.

Rocket: Proton M/Briz M; Payload: Inmarsat 4-F3; Date: 18 August 2008, 2243 UTC; Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. After a 9-hour-3-minute mission, the launcher released the satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit.

United Space Alliance (USA), NASA’s prime Space Shuttle contractor, filed a lawsuit in Brevard County Circuit Court in Florida against Alliant Techsystems, Inc., and ATK Launch Systems, Inc.

Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar satellite will be launched on 1 November, the country’s President Hugo Chavez said.

Iran launched a Safir 1 rocket on 17 August. It is unclear what payload the vehicle was carrying, and there are strong indications that the launch was in fact a failure — like the last attempt in February 2008.