Satellite News

Aiming for launch at the end of March, the first satellite built specifically for Europe’s ambitious Copernicus environmental monitoring programme is now in the last stages of testing before being shipped to French Guiana for lift-off.

A consortium of Belgian aerospace companies including QinetiQ Space has signed a pre-contract agreement with the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST).

ATK demonstrated full deployment of a large MegaFlex solar array under a NASA contract to further the development of a high-power system to be used for future robotic and manned exploration missions.

NASA has received 58 proposals for science and exploration technology instruments to fly aboard the agency’s next Mars rover in 2020, twice the usual number submitted for instrument competitions in the recent past.

LiveTV, a provider of inflight entertainment and connectivity, and Eutelsat Communications have concluded an agreement that clears the way for the installation and distribution of Internet connectivity for airlines in Europe using Ka-band satellites.

The Rosetta spacecraft “woke up” after a record 957 days of hibernation. The first communication from the spacecraft arrived at the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany, at 1818 UTC. The signal was received by a ground station at the Goldstone, California, complex of NASA’s Deep Space Network.

The Rocket and Space Corporation Energia ended 2013 with good business indicators, its president and general designer Vitaly Lopota was quoted as saying.

SES has concluded an agreement with SIS LIVE to provide Ka-band capacity on the Astra 1L satellite located at 19.2 degrees East.