Satellite News

Rocket: Soyuz 2-1A; Payload: Bars-M No.1L [Kosmos 2503(?)]; Date: 27 February 2015, 1101 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The governmental spacecraft was accurately placed on the target orbit. This was the second Soyuz family mission in 2015.

LISA Pathfinder’s propulsion and science modules are leaving the UK for the last time. Airbus Defence and Space will ship the two modules to IABG (Industrie Anlagen Betriebs Gesellschaft), near Munich in Germany, for final system level testing. The spacecraft is scheduled to be launched later this year by a European Vega rocket from Kourou, French Guiana.

DigitalGlobe, Inc. reported financial results for the full year and quarter ending 31 December 2014.

The TurkmenAlem52E/MonacoSAT telecommunications satellite was shipped from Thales Alenia Space’s Cannes plant on 23 February 2015, arriving at the Cape Canaveral launch site in Florida on 26 February. Built by Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor, on behalf of the Turkmenistan Ministry of Communications, the satellite will be orbited in March 2015 by a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher.

Final preparations are underway for the launch of NASA’s quartet of Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft, which constitute the first space mission dedicated to the study of magnetic reconnection. This fundamental process occurs throughout the universe where magnetic fields connect and disconnect with an explosive release of energy.

Eutelsat 115 West B, the first all-electric satellite for Eutelsat Communications is scheduled for launch by SpaceX using the Falcon 9 rocket on 1 March between 03.49 and 04.34 UTC. Built by Boeing Defense and Space, Eutelsat’s latest satellite arrived in Cape Canaveral on 25 January.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. announced that it has signed a contract valued in excess of C$29 million with Aselsan Electronic Industries Inc. (Aselsan), to provide Ku-Band payload equipment for a communications satellite subsystem.

The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory successfully deployed the mesh reflector and boom aboard the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) spacecraft, a key milestone on its mission to provide global measurements of soil moisture.