Satellite News

On 18 January, the Canadian NEOSSat (Near-Earth Object Space Surveillance Satellite) arrived in India.

The United States’ Export-Import Bank has authorised an US$87.1 million guarantee of a loan extended by Credit Agricole and other European lenders to Hispasat Canarias S.L.U., a Hispasat S.A. subsidiary based in Madrid, Spain, that will finance the assembly and purchase of a satellite to be manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corporation.

RSCC has successfully switched the Tricolor NV and NTV+ telecast packages from the Bonum-1 to the DirecTV-1R satellite. The switchover was performed on 17 January 2013. Both satellites are currently stationed in the 56 degrees East orbital slot which has been assigned to Russia for direct broadcasting.

Prof. U. R. Rao, former Chairman, ISRO and Secretary, Department of Space is being honoured by the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) by inducting him as a Member of the “Satellite Hall of Fame,” Washington.

There is ongoing confusion over the number of Proton-M launches that Kazakhstan will allow from the Baikonur cosmodrome in 2013. According to latest reports, Kazakhstan has permitted only 12 of 17 Proton-M rocket launches requested by Russia.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has selected Surrey Satellite Technology US LLC (SST-US) to investigate cost reduction and augmentation of the current GPS constellation through the application of the small satellite approach.

Earlier this month during a semi-weekly contact with the spacecraft, the Kepler project team detected an increase in the amount of torque required to spin one of the three remaining reaction wheels. This increase in friction occurred before the 11 January 2013 quarterly roll, and persisted after the spacecraft roll and several momentum desaturations of the reaction wheels.

RapidEye announced a positive update on the health and lifespan of its satellites. In addition, Michael Oxfort has been appointed to lead the development of the company’s data continuity strategy.