Satellite News

NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have started work on Landsat 9, planned to launch in 2023, which will extend the Earth-observing programme’s record of land images to half a century.

NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) will impact the planet’s surface, most likely on 30 April after it runs out of propellant.

Orbital ATK and GenCorp differ slightly over what caused the crash of Orbital’s Antares rocket on 28 October. Both agree that there had been excessive wear in the bearings of the engine provided by GenCorp. But what caused it?

Northrop Grumman Corporation reached another major milestone for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope this week, with the delivery of the Deployable Tower Assembly (DTA).

Exelis delivered six enhanced ground encryptors, which will improve information security for the Global Positioning System’s Next-Generation Operational Control System (GPS OCX), to Raytheon Company . GPS OCX is part of the U.S. Air Force’s GPS modernisation programme.

SES Government Solutions (SES GS) announced it has been awarded a 1-year task order with four 1-year option periods to provide 288 MHz of Ku-band satellite capacity to support forces deployed to the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of operation.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: Dragon/CRS6; Date: 14 April 2015, 2010 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The Dragon supply vessel is on its way to the International Space Station; however an attempt to soft-land the rocket’s first stage failed.

Rocket Lab has unveiled the Rutherford engine, revealing that the Electron launch system – a small orbital launch vehicle – is the world’s first battery-powered rocket.