Satellite News

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has recognised Northrop Grumman Corporation with a Group Achievement Award for a deployable antenna flown on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

SES Astra has signed, through its affiliate Astra Broadband Services (ABBS), a framework contract with the Spanish cable operator TeleCable to market its satellite based two-way broadband service Astra2Connect in Asturias, a Northern region of Spain.

DataPath, Inc. has been selected by WildBlue Communications, Inc. to provide long-term operations and maintenance services.

NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft will conduct the second of three flybys of Mercury on 6 October to photograph most of its remaining unseen surface and collect science data.

The GIOVE-B demonstration satellite went into safe mode on 9 September after being exposed to a temporary surge of radiation, but is now fully functional again.

Rocket: Dnepr; Payload: THEOS (Thailand Earth Observation Satellite); Date: 1 October 2008, 0637 UTC; Site: Yasny (Dombarovsky), Russia. The satellite was placed in a 680-km Sun-synchronous orbit about half an hour after lift-off.