Satellite News

The telecommunications spacecraft Ekspress-AM5, designed and constructed by ISS-Reshetnev Company, has finally completed a 2.5-month journey to its intended position in geostationary orbit.

NASA’s preparing to send its fifth in a series of smartphone-controlled small spacecraft into orbit. PhoneSat 2.5 will ride into space as part of the SpaceX CRS-3 commercial cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. CRS-3 is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at the end of March (two weeks later than previously planned – cf. separate article in this issue).

Engineers have restored NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to full operations, following an unplanned swap of duplicate computers aboard the spacecraft on 9 March.

China’s troubled Yutu moon rover woke up again, though the mechanical troubles that have plagued it remain, the government said.

A new study by ESA’s Clean Space initiative – tasked with reducing the space industry’s environmental impacts on both Earth and space – aims to evaluate battery behaviour after a satellite shuts down, assessing the risk of breakup and ensuring full ‘passivation’.

The European Commission welcomed a vote of the European Parliament on the Copernicus Regulation. Copernicus, the EU’s Earth Observation Programme, will ensure the regular observation and monitoring of Earth sub-systems, the atmosphere, oceans, and continental surfaces.

A new approach developed in Europe is helping ground stations to acquire signals faster and more accurately than ever before, according to ESA.

A Proton-M carrier rocket with two communications…Read more