Satellite News

The heavy-lift Ariane 5 for Arianespace’s year-opening flight from French Guiana on 6 February is now complete following integration of its full payload “stack,” consisting of the ABS-2 and Athena-Fidus advanced relay platforms.

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announced the completion of the Dream Chaser Incremental Critical Design Review (CDR) with the completion of Milestone 10a under its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) agreement with NASA.

SES S.A. announced that the Astra 2E satellite enters into commercial service in the orbital arc of 28.2/28.5 degrees East on 1 February 2014. The satellite was launched on board an ILS Proton launch vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 30 September 2013.

Thales Alenia Space has delivered its third Pressurised Cargo Module (PCM) to Orbital Sciences Corporation for integration in the Cygnus spacecraft that will transport cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).

Lockheed Martin recently demonstrated that the U.S. Navy’s Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellites may help solve communication challenges in the arctic. During company-funded tests, MUOS voice and data signals reached much farther north than previously thought, just 50 km and 0.5 degrees of latitude shy of the North Pole.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has converted a previously contracted back-up launch on a Rokot to a firm agreement with Eurockot Launch Services GmbH for placing into orbit an additional spacecraft from the Copernicus Sentinel range of satellites.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. announced that the Sapphire satellite developed by MDA for Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) has completed its commissioning and is fully transitioned into operations as a contributing sensor to the U.S. Space Surveillance Network.

Harris Corporation has passed a critical pre-shipment review and initiated a phased delivery and installation of hardware and software that will form the network infrastructure for the ground segment of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite – R Series (GOES-R) programme.