Satellite News

The launch of Orbital’s new Antares rocket from Wallops Island was scrubbed today after an umbilical seperated prematurely from the launcher’s second stage 12 minutes before the scheduled lift-off.

Scientists will soon gain a better view into energy and plasma movement near the surface of the Sun, thanks to delivery of the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft to Vandenberg Air Force Base in preparation for launch.

NASA has awarded the University of California, Berkeley, up to US$200 million to build a satellite to determine how Earth’s weather affects weather at the edge of space, in hopes of improving forecasts of extreme “space weather” that can disrupt global positioning satellites (GPS) and radio communications.

Northrop Grumman Corporation will provide 48 more self-deploying, monopole JIB antennas for Global Positioning System (GPS III) satellites under a follow-on contract from Lockheed Martin Corporation. The work will be carried out by Astro Aerospace, a strategic business unit of Northrop Grumman.

OHB System AG has awarded to SENER a new contract related to the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) mission. This contract is to be added to two other contracts awarded last month by Kayser Threde for the supply of two critical subsystem elements: the scanning mechanisms and the calibration and obturation mechanisms.

Astrium has been awarded a study contract by the French space agency CNES. The study will analyse existing concepts and technologies and determine which can be used to successfully tackle large items of space debris, such as launcher stages and end of life satellites.