Satellite News

Roskosmos is going to hand over the reins of the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome to the Russian government, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said. He pointed out that the construction of the cosmodrome is now in its final stage, only about six months are left until the first middle-class rocket is going to be launched from Vostochny.

The first geostationary satellite built in Argentina – ARSAT-1 – has been delivered to French Guiana, where the spacecraft will be readied for Arianespace’s dual-passenger Ariane 5 mission VA220 in mid-October.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) said it is considering a flight demonstration to introduce DARPA-developed space robotics capabilities in GEO within the next five years. Because the majority of satellites in GEO are commercially owned, DARPA is particularly interested in establishing a public-private partnership that would make co-operative robotic servicing available to both military and commercial GEO satellite owners on a fee-for-service basis.

n NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has prompted the rover team to make plans to reformat the rover’s flash memory.

The five geckos onboard Russia’s Foton-M4 satellite died simultaneously two days before landing because of a technical malfunction, the leading scientist of the experiment, Sergei Savelyev, was quoted as saying.