Satellite News

European Space Agency (ESA) ministers “took a major decision — to develop a new launcher, the Ariane 6, which will replace the Ariane 5, with a maiden flight scheduled for 2020,” French Research Minister Genevieve Fioraso said in a statement after the European Space Agency (ESA) Ministerial Council meeting in Luxembourg.

Arianespace’s sixth heavy-lift mission of 2014 has been given the go-ahead for Thursday’s lift-off from the Spaceport on a dual-passenger Ariane 5 flight carrying the DirecTV-14 and GSAT-16 satellites.

SPOT 7, the Earth-observation satellite designed and built by Airbus Defence and Space, is commercially launched today, making its high-resolution imagery available to all users. In addition, Airbus Defence and Space established a new co-operation with the Azerbaijani satellite operator Azercosmos, for a joint use of the SPOT satellites.

Aerojet Rocketdyne announced its 100th geosynchronous satellite apogee insertion using its iridium/rhenium High Performance Apogee Thruster (HiPAT ), including first and second generation design configurations.

exactEarth Ltd. announced the successful integration of three advanced in-orbit AIS satellites into its exactView constellation through a contract under which exactEarth purchased one satellite and is acquiring data from two more under license.

Loral Space & Communications Inc. announced that during a 1 December 2014 mediation session, Loral and MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) agreed that Loral will be responsible for US$45 million, and MDA and Loral’s former subsidiary, Space Systems/Loral, LLC (SSL), will be responsible for US$55 million, of the US$100 million ViaSat litigation settlement.