Satellite News

Rocket: Soyuz 2-1B/Fregat; Payload: Meteor-M2, six secondary satellites; Date: 8 July 2014, 1558 UTC, Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The The Meteor-M2 weather satellite was released into a near-polar, Sun-synchronous orbit.

The Soyuz for Arianespace’s next medium-lift mission has arrived at the launch zone in French Guiana, where it stands ready to receive the four satellite passengers that will join O3b Networks’ high-speed connectivity system.

Spaceflight Inc. has signed the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to a launch services agreement for the Eu:CROPIS mission. The Eu:CROPIS spacecraft is scheduled for a rideshare launch on a Spaceflight SHERPA vehicle in 2017.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) recently completed a Critical Design Review (CDR) of the launch site accommodations that will support commercial crew launches of Boeing’s Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 at Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) in Florida.

Boeing announced it will build the Intelsat 35e Epic Next Generation satellite for Intelsat. This also marks Intelsat’s ninth order for a satellite based on Boeing’s 702MP (medium power) platform.

Airbus Defence and Space has just completed the production of the two heat shields for the first European ExoMars mission in 2016. These shields will protect the Schiaparelli capsule when it descends through the Martian atmosphere. They will be delivered shortly to Thales Alenia Space (TAS), the prime contractor on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA).

Northrop Grumman Corporation and teammate ATK have completed static testing of the primary mirror backplane support structure (PMBSS), moving NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope one step closer to its 2018 launch.

Thales Alenia Space announced the launching of the new European project HIPPO (High-Power Photonics for Satellite Laser Communications and On-Board Optical Processing), entailing the development of reliable and robust high-power photonic components for future satellite payloads.