Satellite News

Eutelsat 8 West B is in the final stretch of manufacturing and on track for launch by an Ariane 5 rocket in mid-2015. The 5.8 tonne satellite has finished launch environment tests and is now going through a final round of payload performance checks at Thales Alenia Space’s factory in Cannes.

The Asteroid Explorer “Hayabusa 2″ completed its initial functional confirmation period on 2 March 2015, as all scheduled checkout and evaluation of acquired data were completed. The explorer has been under inspection for about three months after its launch on 3 December 2014.

China has run tests close to the moon simulating an unmanned docking procedure needed in the country’s next lunar mission.

Managers of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover mission expect to approve resumption of rover arm movements as early as this week while continuing analysis of what appears to be an intermittent short circuit in the drill.

COM DEV International Ltd. announced first quarter results for the three-month period ending 31 January 2015.

COM DEV International Ltd. announced that exactEarth Ltd. has presented its shareholders, COM DEV and Hisdesat Servicios Estrategicos S.A., with strategic growth plans that are expected to expand its existing vessel tracking business into the much larger maritime data services market.