Satellite News

According to the Aon Space Market Review Q2 2008, space insurers earned approximately US$411 million in premium for the first two quarters of 2008, putting the market in a profitable position with claims reported to be US$252 million.

NASA selected software engineering provider The Hammers Company to build the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) Mission Operations Element (MOE).

ProtoStar Ltd. and the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) and PLDT’s subsidiary, Mabuhay Satellite Corporation, announced the signing of several agreements covering multiple areas of co-operation.

Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom Co and Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) will jointly launch a second joint communications satellite in 2010, Chunghwa Telecom said.

The Jason-2 ocean altimetry satellite received its in-flight acceptance at an assessment meeting in Toulouse recently.

The U.S. Department of Defense has approved plans to buy and launch two commercial-class imagery satellites to complement its classified constellation of spy craft.

The 10 October launch date of NASA’s shuttle mission STS-125 to the Hubble Space Telescope is in jeopardy because of a problem with insulation on the replacement batteries for the telescope, and (possibly) also because of a malfunction aboard the spacecraft itself.

Orbital Sciences Corporation announced that the U.S. Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center (SMC) recently placed an order for a new Minotaur IV launch vehicle under the company’s Orbital/Suborbital Program-2 (OSP-2) contract.