Satellite News

Rocket: Pegasus XL; Payload: IRIS; Date: 28 June 2013, 0227 UTC; Launch site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA. The IRIS (Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph) spacecraft was deployed into its targeted orbit approximately 640 km above the Earth.

United Launch Services LLC, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has won a potential US$1 billion contract to provide production services for seven launch vehicle configurations used by the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. National Reconnaissance Organization.

Arianespace said it is keeping up the mission pace at its French Guiana base of operations with the acceptance of another heavy-lift Ariane 5, which now is being readied for the integration of a dual-satellite payload to be orbited on 25 July.

ITT Exelis has received a US$3.2 million contract from Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. to design an advanced receiver chain for the U.S. Air Force Weather Satellite Follow-on (WSF) programme. The new design will improve measurements of ocean surface winds used for severe weather forecasting.

NAV CANADA has invested an additional U.S. $40 million in preferred interests of Aireon LLC, a joint venture with Iridium Communications Inc. (IRDM). This investment increases NAV CANADA’s ownership of Aireon to 18.7% on a fully diluted basis.

EUMETSAT has increased the bandwidth of the communications link between Svalbard, Norway, and its headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany.

Rocket: Soyuz 2.1-b; Payload: Resurs-P; Date: 25 June 2013, 1728 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. It was the first of two successful (yet otherwise unrelated) Soyuz launches on the same day.

Rocket: Soyuz ST-B/Fregat; Payload: four O3b satellites; Date: 25 June 2013, 1924 UTC; Launch Site: Sinnamary, French Guiana. All four satellites were successfully deployed into their target orbits.