Satellite News

Rocket: Strela; Payload: Kondor-E2; Date: 19 December, 0443 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The radar imaging satellites was successfully deployed to its target orbit.

The third Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite built by Lockheed Martin for the U.S. Navy was encapsulated into its payload fairing on 18 December. It is scheduled to launch 20 January aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Millennium Space Systems announced the completion of structural qualification of its AQUILA M8 satellite structure. AQUILA M8–under development for a confidential customer–joins Millennium’s AQUILA platform product line, supporting missions of up to 3000 kg total mass in low, medium and geostationary Earth orbits (LEO, MEO and GEO).

Inmarsat-2 F2, the second Eurostar satellite designed and built by Airbus Defence and Space, was retired from operational service and safely decommissioned this week after completing a record breaking flawless commercial mission in geostationary orbit of 23.5 years.

NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft makes a comeback with the discovery of the first exoplanet found using its new mission — K2. The discovery was made when astronomers and engineers devised an ingenious way to repurpose Kepler for the K2 mission and continue its search of the cosmos for other worlds.

Researchers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center recently assembled an engineering model Stirling power system using valuable assets that became available after the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) flight project was cancelled in late 2013.

Inmarsat confirmed the U.S. Government Business Unit’s successful testing of its on-demand lease service using the prototype L-band Advanced Communications Element (LACE) terminal.