Satellite News

Platforma HD, a new Russian all-HDTV platform, has selected the Eurobird 9 satellite operated by Eutelsat Communications to deliver new HD content across western parts of Russia to the Urals.

Talia Limited, one of the largest suppliers of satellite Internet services for North Africa and the Middle East, has contracted multiple transponders on SES New Skies’ NSS-12 satellite due for launch in the second half of 2009.

ViaSat has received a US$50 million contract award from Skylogic, the broadband subsidiary of Eutelsat Communications for on-ground baseband infrastructure for the previously announced high-capacity KA-SAT Ka-band satellite system.

The launch of ESA’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite aboard a Rokot from Plesetsk, Russia, was delayed almost a month because of a problem with the launch vehicle’s upper stage.

When the Lockheed Martin team returned to work on the NOAA-N Prime weather satellite on 6 September 2003, it looked just like when they left it: sitting on an adaptor plate that connected it to a turn-over cart (TOC). But something important was missing — 24 bolts that should have secured the the adaptor (and the spacecraft on it) to the cart.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 2C/SMA; Payload: Huan Jing-1A, Huan Jing-1B (HJ-1A, HJ-1B); Date: 6 September 2008, 0325 UTC; Site: Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre, China. The two-stage rocket released the two satellites into a 650-km Sun-synchronous orbit 51 minutes after lift-off.

Rocket: Delta II; Payload: GeoEye-1; Date: 6 September 2008, 1851 UTC; Site: Vandenberg Air Force Station, USA. Following a nearly 59 minute flight, the spacecraft was deployed into a 681-km orbit.

Rocket: Delta II; Payload: GeoEye-1; Date: 6 September 2008, 1851 UTC; Site: Vandenberg Air Force Station, USA. Following a nearly 59 minute flight, the spacecraft was deployed into a 681-km orbit.