Satellite News

Space shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven astronauts ended a 14-day journey of more than 5.7 million miles with a 0053 landing on 12 September at Edwards Air Force Base in California, USA.

A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is to launch the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) Demonstration mission on 19 September.

Russia will launch its new Meteor-M weather satellite on 15 September (local time), Roskosmos said.

A new target launch date of 28 February 2010 has been announced for ESA’s CryoSat mission.

China has begun construction of its new space launch centre in Wenchang City, on the northeast coast of the tropical island province of Hainan, which is scheduled to be completed by 2013.

The operational life of Indonesian communication satellite Palapa D was shortened by about five years by the salvage manoeuvre that had become necessary, the spacecraft’s manufacturer said.

A problem seems to have befallen Eutelsat’s Eurobird 1 at 28.5 degrees East – the spacecraft is somewhat unstable and only partially operational after a brief outage.

SES World Skies announced that Galaxy Backbone has signed a multiyear, two-transponder agreement for delivery of information and communication technology (ICT) services to rural and remote government offices, schools and hospitals in communities throughout Nigeria.