Satellite News

Rocket: Zenit 3-SLB; Payload: Telstar 11N; Date: 26 February 2009, 1830 UTC; Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The first phases of the mission, which was still ongoing at the time of writing, went ahead as planned.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter unexpectedly rebooted its computer on 23 February and put itself into a limited-activity mode that is an automated safety response.

Iridium Satellite LLC announced financial results for the quarter and the year ending 31 December 2008.

A U.S. politician has harshly criticised Eutelsat for its (reported but not yet officially confirmed) decision to launch a satellite aboard a Chinese rocket – and apparently missed the fact that China has been buying Western satellites for more than a decade.