Satellite News

Manoeuvres are under way to steer ESA’s trio of Swarm satellites into their respective orbits so that they can start delivering the best-ever survey of our magnetic field, the agency said.

SES announced the signature of a major capacity agreement with Telefonica Global Solutions to enhance and extend the reach of Telefonica’s VIVO mobile voice and data services across the Northern and Northeast region of Brazil. VIVO is the largest national mobile voice and data service provider in Brazil.

Rocket: Soyuz-U; Payload: Progress M-22M (Progress P54); Date: 5 February 2014, 1623 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The resupply spacecraft, loaded with 2.8 tons of cargo, docked with the ISS 5 hours, 59 minutes after lift-off.

Exelis has delivered the primary payload for the future Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R (GOES-R) weather satellite. The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), which provides high-resolution imagery of environmental conditions, has arrived in Denver where it will be integrated into its GOES-R satellite for a scheduled 2016 launch.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a government directive consolidating space industry assets under a single state-controlled corporation.

Teledyne Technologies Incorporated announced that its subsidiary, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc., in Huntsville, Ala., has been awarded a five-year US$60 million contract by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) to design and manufacture the Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter (LVSA) for the Space Launch System (SLS).

The Turksat 4A/Proton M launch campaign proceeds at Baikonur in compliance with the approved schedule.

ISS-Reshetnev said it has finished building two telecommunications satellites – Ekspress-AT1 and Ekspress-AT2. A cargo aircraft delivered the two spacecraft to Baikonur on 3 February kicking off pre-launch preparations at the spaceport.