Satellite News

NASA managers completed a review of space shuttle Atlantis’ readiness for flight and selected an official launch date for the STS-125 mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.

The classified military satellite launched by Russia yesterday is thought to be an optical reconnaissance spacecraft.

On 28 April, the final qualification test firing of the third stage solid propellant motor for Europe’s new small launch vehicle took place at the Salto di Quirra Interforce Test Range in Sardinia, Italy.

Aerojet said it successfully completed the first series of vibration and altitude hot fire tests on NASA’s Orion crew module’s 712-N (160 lbf) thrust mono-propellant rocket engine.

Iranian media reported that the country’s first domestically-satellite, Omid 1, has successfully concluded its mission and re-entered the atmosphere.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. announced that it has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract from DigitalGlobe Inc. to provide a ground station solution to an international customer to enable support for the WorldView-1 and WorldView-2 satellites.

Integral Systems, Inc. has revised its previous financial guidance for its fiscal year ending 30 September 2009.

Eutelsat Communications has launched its Tooway consumer Internet access service in the UK.