Satellite News

An initial investigation of the crash of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo has shown that neither the rocket plane’s motor nor the vehicle itself exploded, and that the motor apparently had worked as planned. Instead, the plane disintegrated for reasons yet unknown.

China completed its first return mission to the moon with the successful re-entry and landing of an unmanned probe, which social media users have dubbed Xiaofei, or “little flyer.”

COM DEV International Ltd. has been awarded a fully-funded contract valued at approximately C$6 million to deliver Ku-band equipment, including multiplexers, switches and ancillary equipment to be used on a high throughput communications satellite.

Airbus Defence and Space has chosen Hughes Network Systems, LLC as its terminal development partner for a new ultra-compact and lightweight X-band satellite terminal for a new service named XeBRA (Zee-brah).

ESA’s Proba-2 has celebrated five years in orbit. The second PRoject for OnBoard Autonomy mission was launched in 2009 as part of ESA’s programme for proving new technology in space.