Satellite News

Following Ariane Flight VA212, both satellites are reported healthy.

Eutelsat Communications and Arianespace announced the signature of a long-term multiple launch services agreement which guarantees launch capacity and flexibility to Eutelsat for its expansion programme.

Teledyne Technologies Incorporate announced that its subsidiary, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc., in Huntsville, Alabama, has been awarded a five year prime contract with a potential total value of US$120.1 million to continue providing dedicated payload operations and integration support for the International Space Station (ISS) and other Marshall Space Flight Center managed missions.

Lockheed Martin has completed the assembly of NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft. The orbiter is now undergoing environmental testing at the company’s Space Systems facilities, near Denver, Colorado. MAVEN is the next mission to Mars and will be the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere.

A UK mission, jointly developed by the University of Surrey’s Surrey Space Centre (SSC) and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), to send the world’s first smartphone satellite into orbit, is due to launch on 25 February.