Satellite News

The launch of Astra 2G aboard a Proton-M is on schedule despite reports that had suggested otherwise. According to International Launch Services, day one of fuelling of the Astra 2G spacecraft was completed on schedule in Baikonur.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Phoenix programme has shared its Hosted POD Assembly Interface Control Document. The document provides specifications for Phoenix’s Payload Orbital Delivery (POD) system, a standardised mechanism currently in development that is intended to safely carry a wide variety of payloads to GEO aboard commercial communications satellites.

CGS SpA Compagnia Generale per lo Spazio has signed a contract with Airbus Defence and Space for the realisation of the MicroWave Imager (MWI) instrument for the MetOp Second Generation satellites.

NASA has officially confirmed the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, clearing it to move forward into the development phase.

The newest node in NASA’s Mars telecommunications network — a radio aboard the MAVEN orbiter custom-designed for data links with robots on the surface of Mars — handled a copious 550 megabits during its first relay of real Mars data.

ESA’s fifth Galileo navigation satellite, one of two left in the wrong orbit this summer, will make a series of manoeuvres this month as a prelude to its health being confirmed.

Communications with the STEREO Behind spacecraft were interrupted on 1 October 2014 immediately after a planned reset of the spacecraft performed as part of a test of solar conjunction operations. There have been no successful communications since then, though attempts to recover the spacecraft continue. Initial indications are that a series of problems in the guidance and control system led to the anomaly.

Orbcomm Inc. announced financial results for the third quarter ending 30 September 2014.