Satellite News

The launch of the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 26 (H-IIA F26) with the Asteroid Explorer “Hayabusa 2″ onboard has been rescheduled as clouds including a freezing layer that exceeds the restrictions for suitable weather are forecast to be generated at around the scheduled launch time on 30 November, 0424 UTC.

The operations team at ESOC is conducting manoeuvres to raise the pericentre of the Venus Express (VEX) orbit again, in an effort to keep the spacecraft in productive orbit around Venus.

The European Space Agency’s JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) mission has been given the green light to proceed to the next stage of development. This approval is a milestone for the mission, which aims to launch in 2022 to explore Jupiter and its potentially habitable icy moons.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) began regular provision of the Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 “Daichi-2″ (ALOS-2) observation data.

The 82nd meeting of the EUMETSAT Council took place in Darmstadt, Germany, on 26 November. The meeting achieved progress in the approval process for the EUMETSAT Polar System Second Generation (EPS-SG) programme.

The first ever gigabit transmission via laser of imagery between the radar sensor on Sentinel-1A and Alphasat satellites, the latter built by Airbus Defence and Space, has taken place successfully.