Satellite News

The “green light” has been given for this week’s heavy-lift Ariane 5 mission, which is to orbit a dual-passenger payload consisting of two advanced relay platforms: ABS-2 and Athena-Fidus. The Ariane 5 is now cleared for rollout to the ELA-3 launch zone – where it will be readied for lift-off on 6 February during a 2-hr., 5-min. launch window opening at 2030 UTC.

ESA has selected Primoceler Inc. of Tampere, Finland, to develop and fabricate its new optical sensor packages for use in future orbital missions. The benefits of the technology include a permanent, transparent seam and a hermetic seal to protect package contents, namely delicate optical sensor equipment, Primoceler said.

Optus announced that it has signed a new, five-year agreement with NBN Co to operate its two new satellites that will deliver high-speed broadband services to rural and remote Australia.

SES S.A. announced that the SES-8 satellite has been successfully co-positioned with SES’s NSS-6 satellite at the orbital location of 95 degrees East and is now fully operational to serve the Asia-Pacific region.

An infrared camera designed with University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin know-how, which will form the heart of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), has joined three other instruments at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to be mounted in the nascent telescope structure.

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter module consisting of the spacecraft structure, thermal control and propulsion systems was handed over by OHB System to Thales Alenia Space France at a ceremony held in Bremen, Germany, today.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has successfully completed the SpaceWire Inter-operability Test for the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) satellite and has begun spacecraft bus integration. Ball will power-up the spacecraft for the first time later this month as build progresses toward an early 2017 launch.

NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, observatory has been approved for a 28-day mission extension. The spacecraft is now expected to impact the lunar surface on or around 21 April 2014, depending on the final trajectory.