Satellite News

The launch of NASA’s TDRS-K Tracking and Data Relay Satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is being rescheduled to 31 January. The launch window is 0152-0232 UTC, a duration of 40 minutes.

Japan is to launch a new spy satellite on 27 January between 0400 and 0600 UTC. An H-2A rocket carrying a radar reconnaissance satellite is scheduled to blast off from the Tanegashima space centre, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency announced.

The BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) Mechanical and Propulsion Bus (MPB) Proto-Flight Model (PFM) arrived at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, in December. It had travelled from the Stevenage (UK) facility of Astrium, where the propulsion subsystem and the heat pipes had been integrated.

ITT Exelis has been awarded a US$2.15 million contract by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to research the development of a small satellite navigation payload to augment the current Global Positioning System (GPS) programme.

The first switch-on of a Galileo search and rescue package shows it to be working well. Its activation begins a major expansion of the space-based Cospas-Sarsat network, which brings help to air and sea vessels in distress.