Satellite News

The Ariane 5 for Arianespace’s fifth flight to service the International Space Station is now being assembled in French Guiana, preparing the launcher for its 2014 mission with another European Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) cargo resupply vessel.

Airbus Defence and Space is preparing for the launch of KazEOSat-1 (formerly known as DZZ-HR), which is due to lift off on 28 April 2014 into low Sun-synchronous orbit (about 700 km from Earth) on-board a Vega launcher from the European spaceport in Kourou (French Guiana).

Airbus Defence and Space has been selected as sole prime contractor to develop, construct and launch the first Earth observation optical satellite system for Peru, with the support of the French government.

Over the last year, engineers have been testing and piecing together the multitude of components that make up Sentinel-3. The recent arrival of the infrared radiometer is a milestone in the exacting process of building this upcoming Copernicus mission.

The first of five instruments that will fly on JPSS-1, NOAA’s next polar orbiting environmental satellite, successfully completed pre-shipment review last week. The Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) will be on board the JPSS-1 satellite mission scheduled to launch in early 2017.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has awarded a contract worth C$1.35 million to Neptec Design Group to continue work on Canada’s contribution to ASTRO-H, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) next-generation space observatory, scheduled to be launched in late 2015.

Telespazio (Finmeccanica/Thales) has been awarded a contract by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the supply of engineering, operation and maintenance services, in the frame of Copernicus Space Component Data Access (CSCDA) of the European Copernicus Earth observation programme.

Northrop Grumman Corporation reported financial results for the first quarter 2014.