Satellite News

Preparations for Arianespace’s second Soyuz mission from French Guiana are moving forward as assembly and checkout of the vehicle continue at the Spaceport. Its basic three-stage launcher is now taking shape in the MIK integration hall at the Soyuz launch site, located in the Spaceport’s northwestern sector near the town of Sinnamary.

China successfully carried out its first docking exercise between two unmanned spacecraft as the Shenzhou 8 spacecraft joined the Tiangong 1 module about 340 km above Earth.

The U.S. Air Force’s first Advanced Extremely High Frequency military communications satellite has completed initial activation of the protected communications payload and has begun on-orbit testing.

The Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) that will fly on the next Landsat satellite came out of its first round of thermal vacuum testing on 4 October at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.

Anomalies in the operation of the solid-state mass memory system on board Mars Express have caused science observations to be temporarily halted. A technical work-around is being investigated that will enable the resumption of a number of observations and should evolve into a long-term solution.

Inmarsat plc reported results for the three months ending 30 September 2011.

The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) strongly endorsed the introduction yesterday of H.R. 3288, the “Safeguarding United States Leadership and Security Act of 2011,” legislation that would reform the U.S. framework for satellite export controls.

NSR’s “Global Assessment of Satellite Supply & Demand, 8th Edition” study indicates that satellite operators continue to buck the global economic malaise. In 2010 global satellite operators saw a strong revenue increase of over US$550 million, derived from the lease of commercial satellite capacity. NSR projects that by 2020 capacity leasing revenues will reach US$17.2 billion, up from US$10.1 billion in 2010.