Satellite News

After almost 9 years in space, NASA’s Deep Impact mission has ended. The project team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has reluctantly pronounced the mission at an end after being unable to communicate with the spacecraft for over a month.

Boeing and Aerojet Rocketdyne recently completed test firings of the CST-100 spacecraft’s steering jets at White Sands Space Harbor in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The tests assessed how the thrusters — which fire with 6,675 N (1,500 lbf) of thrust– will speed up, slow down and move the spacecraft while carrying NASA astronauts in Earth’s orbit.

Since 2000, the four identical satellites of the Cluster quartet have been probing Earth’s magnetosphere in three dimensions. This week, two of them made their closest-ever approach, just 4 km, enabling data to be acquired with unprecedented detail.

Tethers Unlimited, Inc. (TUI) has signed a contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to develop technologies to enable 3D printing of spacecraft structures with embedded radiation shielding.

The Russian Satellite Communications Company and JSC Gazprom Space Systems (GSS) have signed an agreement to set a satellite assembly operation.

SES announced that it has signed a new long-term multiple transponder contract with Arqiva to serve its television and radio customers in the UK and Ireland.