Satellite News

The first mirror segment that will fly on the James Webb Space Telescope, built by Northrop Grumman Corporation, has completed its first series of cryogenic temperature tests in the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama/USA.

Engineers have successfully ejected the dust cover from NASA’s Kepler telescope.

Following the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on 8 April in Evry, France, Arianespace announced 2008 sales of EUR955.7 million, with net income of EUR2.5 million.

Satellite export control rules are hampering U.S. national security and economic interests, and must be updated to protect the U.S. space industrial base, Aerospace Industries Association President and CEO Marion Blakey said recently.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. has signed a strategic agreement with RapidEye AG, provider of commercial satellite imagery products and services, to become the exclusive supplier of RapidEye satellite ground stations based on MDA direct downlink solutions, to the global surveillance and reconnaissance market.

Eutelsat Communications announced the upcoming launch of France’s free Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) channels via its Atlantic Bird 3 satellite. The new offer, called FRANSAT , will be available from June.

NSR LLC has released findings from its latest report, “Broadband Satellite Markets, 8th Edition” that indicate the broadband satellite sector may remain relatively unaffected by the global economic crisis if a turnaround begins in the next 6-12 months.

Hardly surprising, North Korea’s recent Unha-2 rocket launch stays in the news. Especially interesting is a picture taken of the rocket by a commercial U.S. spy satellite shortly after lift-off of the vehicle. In related news, Japan reportedly plans to locate parts of the rocket on the ocean floor.