Satellite News

Following 27 months of successful operation, during which all mission objectives were met, the Space and Missile Systems Center decommissioned the Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload (CHIRP), on 6 December.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is ready to loft classified satellite into orbit for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office on the NROL-39 mission. Lift-off is scheduled for 0713 UTC on 6 December from Vandenberg Air Force Base. However, meteorologists predict cold temperatures will likely prevent launch.

Subject to the decision by the State Review Board, the Proton M integrated launch vehicle with a Briz M upper stage carrying the Inmarsat 5F-1 spacecraft was delivered to the Launch Facility today.

The Soyuz rocket that is to launch ESA’s Gaia is completing its basic build-up following mating of the vehicle’s Block I third stage in French Guiana.

DARPA’s Membrane Optical Imager for Real-Time Exploitation (MOIRE) programme aims to create technologies that would enable future high-resolution orbital telescopes to provide real-time video and images of the Earth from Geosynchronous Earth Orbit. Size and cost constraints have so far prevented placing large-scale imaging satellites in GEO, so MOIRE is developing technologies that would make orbital telescopes much lighter, more transportable and more cost-effective.

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully completed its first geostationary transfer mission, delivering the SES-8 satellite to its targeted 295 x 80,000 km supersynchronous transfer orbit.

Thales Alenia Space has signed a contract with the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) for the ground segment of the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) programme.

Scientists and engineers at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center (ATC) have developed the lightest satellite cryocooler ever built.