Satellite News

Arianespace and Astrium have signed a contract for 18 additional Ariane 5 ECA launchers, worth more than EUR2 billion. These 18 new Ariane 5 rockets will be launched starting in 2017, following the 35 launchers that were already ordered in 2009, in the PB batch.

NASA and Orbital Sciences Corp. Saturday moved the targeted launch date of the Orbital-1 resupply mission to the International Space Station to no earlier than 20 December (UTC) to enable engineers to continue their analysis of data involving a suspect Flow Control Valve in a pump module on the starboard truss of the station that malfunctioned last week.

Sierra Nevada Corporation announced that the company has successfully completed all milestones under NASA’s Commercial Crew Development 2 (CCDev2) phase.

Iran said it has sent a second live monkey into space and brought it back safely, state news agency IRNA reported.

China hailed its Chang’e-3 lunar probe mission “a complete success” after its first moon rover Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, and lander took photos of each other on lunar surface.

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin more than US$200 million in contract options to complete production of its fifth and sixth next-generation Global Positioning System satellites, known as GPS III.

Space Systems/Loral (SSL), and Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited announced the signing of a construction agreement for a high power, multi-mission satellite, AsiaSat 9, to be used for television broadcast, private networks and broadband services across the Asia Pacific. The satellite is expected to be launched in 2016.

Astrium has been awarded a contract by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the operation and exploitation of the European components of the International Space Station (ISS) as lead industrial partner.