Satellite News

A large inflatable heat shield developed by NASA’s Space Technology Program has successfully survived a trip through Earth’s atmosphere while travelling at hypersonic speeds up to 12,160 km/h.

SPOT 6, the new Earth observation satellite built by Astrium, is now ready for launch. It will be transferred in the coming days from the Astrium Satellites facility in Toulouse (France) to the Satish Dhawan Space Center in India where it will be integrated with the PSLV launcher that will carry it into orbit.

Hughes Network Systems, LLC announced it will begin testing of its new EchoStar XVII satellite with JUPITER high-throughput technology, following the successful placement into its permanent geosynchronous orbital slot of 107.1 degrees West longitude last week.

GMV USA has been selected for a contract with Measat Global Berhad to provide the satellite ground control and payload ground control systems for the Measat-3b satellite.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. announced that it has signed a contract amendment for C$11.9 million to increase its provision of Radarsat-2 satellite imagery to Europe’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme.

DigitalGlobe, Inc. and GeoEye, Inc. announced that the boards of directors of both companies have unanimously approved a definitive merger agreement under which the companies will combine in a stock and cash transaction valued at approximately US$900 million.

GenCorp Inc., headquartered in Sacramento, California, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) from United Technologies Corporation for US$550 million.

Intelsat S.A. announced that Harris CapRock Communications, a global provider of fully managed communications for remote and harsh environments, will utilise the Intelsat EpicNG platform on Intelsat 29e for advanced fixed and mobile services.