Satellite News

The dual launch of the space telescopes Herschel and Planck will be the first occasion on which the new horizontal separation system HSS-3 in the Ariane payload fairing will be used.

Lockheed Martin said a team led by the company is providing support to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the planning, training and implementation of Servicing Mission 4 (SM-4) to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), scheduled for launch on 11 May.

Officials from Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center’s Global Positioning Systems Wing announced the release of a request for proposal (RFP) for Phase B of the Next Generation GPS Control Segment (OCX) contracts.

Two of the Tactical Satellite-3’s trio of payloads may be called secondary, but their importance to the success of the spacecraft’s year-long mission is primary, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory said.

The mission of Russia’s automatic research spacecraft Fobos Grunt to the Martian moon of Phobos is being delayed for two years, as the spacecraft is not ready, Interfax reported citing an “informed source.”

The European-built Node 3 module for the International Space Station will be shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, on 17 May.

Integral Systems, Inc. reported financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2009.

In an editorial published recently by Space News, Arianespace Chairman & CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall addresses satellite operators’ increasing pressure to encourage new providers for what Mr. Le Gall called an “already overcrowded launch services sector.”