Satellite News

Mars One has secured lead suppliers for its first mission to Mars. The mission, slated for a 2018 launch, will include a robotic lander and a communications satellite. Mars One has contracted Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) to develop mission concept studies. The Mars lander will be built by Lockheed Martin and the communications satellite will be built by SSTL.

An Iranian aerospace official said the country plans to launch two indigenously designed and manufactured satellites by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (20 March 2014).

EADS presented a restructuring plan for its future Airbus Defence and Space Division (Airbus DS) to the European Works Council. Airbus DS will combine EADS’ units Airbus Military, Astrium and Cassidian.

After launch aboard a Chang Zheng 4B, the Chinese-Brazilian CBERS-3 satellite ended up in a wrong orbit and was declared lost. It has likely already re-entered Earth’s atmosphere.

Rocket: Proton M/Briz M; Payload: Inmarsat-5 F1; Date: 8 December 2013, 1212 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The rocket successfully placed its payload into a super-synchronous (geo-stationary) transfer orbit (SSTO).

Kacific Broadband Satellites announced plans to launch a Ka Band High Throughput Satellite (HTS) to provide enhanced broadband to 40 million people in the Pacific including the Pacific islands, New Zealand, eastern Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

SSL announced that the ABS-2 satellite, designed and built for ABS, has arrived at the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, where it will be launched aboard an Ariane 5 launch vehicle by Arianespace.

NASA’s newest Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) arrived at KennedySpace Center on 6 December. After being unloaded from a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft, it was unpacked and inspected to ensure it sustained no damage on its flight from the Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems satellite factory in El Segundo.