Satellite News

Rocket: Dnepr; Payload: ASNARO 1, four microsatellites (ChubuSat 1, Hodoyoshi 1, QSAT-EOS, Tsubame); Date: 6 November 2014, 0735 UTC; Launch site: Yasny, Russia. All spacecraft have been inserted into their target orbits (between 500 and 570 km).

NASA’s Orion spacecraft is set to roll out of the Launch Abort System Facility (LASF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to its launch pad at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37 on 10 November in preparation for lift-off next month on its first space flight.

GLONASS-K No.12L, a navigation satellite designed and built by ISS-Reshetnev Company, has been delivered to the Plesetsk launch site.

The U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin have delivered the third Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) spacecraft to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, where it will be prepared for a January 2015 lift-off aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

Airbus Defence and Space has become the prime contractor for the CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) satellite, the first small type mission of ESA’s (European Space Agency) Scientific Programme. The main objective of the CHEOPS mission is to monitor planetary transits by means of ultrahigh precision photometry on known stars that have planets orbiting them.

Alain Ratier, Director-General of EUMETSAT and Philippe Brunet, Director of Aerospace, Maritime, Security and Defence Industries within the European Commission’s Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry, have signed the Agreement between the European Union and EUMETSAT on the implementation of the Copernicus Programme.

Thailand’s Information and Communication Technology Ministry is poised to push forward with the plan to acquire a government satellite in a bid to boost the country’s security.

Orbcomm Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SkyWave Mobile Communications (SkyWave), the largest M2M service provider on the Inmarsat global L-band satellite network, for US$130 million.