Satellite News

ESA’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) will not be launched before February 2009 because it will take at least two months to fix the problem with the launcher’s upper stage.

The Zefiro 9-A motor successfully completed its first firing test at the Salto di Quirra Inter-force Test Range in Sardinia (Italy). This was the penultimate firing test for the engine prior to the Vega launcher’s qualification flight, scheduled to take place by the end of 2009.

China will launch a group of Shijian research satellites on 25 October (likely local time), Xinhua news agency reported.

NASA engineers have traced two glitches that shut down the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and said on they rebooted one of the computers involved. If all goes well, the telescope should resume operations by next week, NASA officials said.

The U.S. Defense Department confirmed it has no firm deadline for awarding the TSAT satellite contract, saying it needs time to work up new requirements on what is expected to be a scaled down version of the original programme.

ProtoStar Ltd. said that the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) Radiocommunication Bureau issued a Circular Telegram confirming that ProtoStar I is, and has been, operating fully within applicable ITU rules and regulations since its launch on 7 July 2008.