Satellite News

Rocket: Soyuz-FG; Payload: Soyuz TMA-08M; Date: 28 March 2013, 2043 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The manned Soyuz capsule separated from the rocket as planned nine minutes after lift-off.

ATK successfully tested its newly developed CASTOR 30XL upper stage solid rocket motor at the U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) in Tennessee.

The first four satellites in the O3b medium Earth orbit (MEO) constellation, operated by O3b Networks, are ready to be shipped to the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana.

Space Systems/Loral has been selected to study the feasibility of accommodating next-generation U.S. military weather systems on commercial polar orbiting satellites. SSL will examine options for the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center to lower its cost to replace the legacy Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, through the use of alternative architectures such as equipping commercial satellites with advanced meteorological sensors.

Thirty years ago the premier launch of the Advanced TIROS-N satellite series carried the first Search and Rescue (SAR) payload on a U.S. satellite. The satellite, NOAA-E, was designed and built at the Lockheed Martin (then RCA Astrospace Division) facility in East Windsor, New Jersey.

Prof. U. R. Rao, former Chairman, ISRO and Secretary, Department of Space, was inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame by the Society of Satellite Professionals International.