Satellite News

Rocket: Proton M/Briz M; Payload: Ciel II; Date: 10 December 2008, 1343 UTC; Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The satellite was successfully deployed by the Briz M upper stage into geostationary transfer orbit at 2255 UTC. Total launch time was 9 hours, 12 minutes.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has successfully completed a series of environmental and operational tests for NASA’s Kepler mission to verify seamless operation of the system level hardware and software.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) said it marked another significant advance with the performance of its smallest rocket engine, Draco.

GeoEye, Inc. said it has finalised a Service Level Agreement (SLA) modification to the company’s existing NextView contract with the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

SES Astra has signed a reseller agreement with the satellite equipment distributor Eurosat for the marketing and sales of its satellite based interactive broadband service Astra2Connect.

“The Chinese government is particularly worried by the misconception surrounding the satellite as expressed in the media here in the country. It is also concerned that its first efforts at exporting its satellite technology to a country like Nigeria is being mis-construed by the unfortunate loss [of NigComSat 1]. It has therefore given instructions that all efforts must be put together to straighten things out. Both the Nigerian and Chinese governments are keen to address the challenge quickly.” – An unnamed senior Nigerian ministerial official, according to the Guardian (Nigeria)