Satellite News

The first four satellites to serve O3b Networks in providing emerging market connectivity world-wide have entered their checkout phase at the Spaceport, readying them for a June flight on Arianespace’s fifth mission from French Guiana with its medium-lift Soyuz launcher.

During a moratorium on commanding this month while Mars passed nearly behind the sun – a phase called solar conjunction — NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity entered a type of standby mode.

The first Eurostar satellite, Inmarsat-2 F1, designed and built by Astrium, was retired from operational service this week and safely decommissioned after it had completed a long and flawless mission in geostationary orbit. It operated for 22.5 years – far outliving its projected life-span of 10 years.

Aireon LLC, the developer of the world’s first satellite-based global air traffic surveillance system, announced that it has finalised a long-term commercial data services contract with NAV CANADA.

Following the unsuccessful launch of the SL-48 mission on 1 February 2013 (UTC), Sea Launch and Energia Logistics Ltd. (ELUS) formed a Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) to review the contractor findings and agree on root cause and appropriate corrective actions to prevent recurrence.

ATK has successfully completed its solid rocket booster Preliminary Design Review (PDR) with NASA for the new Space Launch System (SLS). The PDR milestone indicates the booster design is on track to support first flight of the SLS in 2017.

Orbital Sciences Corporation has been selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to design, manufacture, integrate and test a new heliophysics science satellite that will investigate the connection between space weather storms in the ionosphere, located at the edge of outer space, and Earth’s terrestrial weather.

The Herschel satellite, part of the joint scientific mission, Herschel-Planck completed its mission today. Herschel was built by a Thales Alenia Space-led industrial team on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA). Herschel was launched on 14 May 2009 along with the Planck satellite. This scientific observatory had a service life of nearly four years, exceeding its required lifetime by 10%.