Satellite News

On 8 April, MESSENGER mission operators at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) successfully conducted a contingency orbit-correction manoeuvre (OCM-15a), to supplement a burn on 6 April (OCM-15) that concluded early when the last drops of hydrazine fuel were expended.

Despite Rosetta’s new trajectory scheme, the orbiter is still able to listen out for its lander Philae, in case it has woken up from hibernation. A new listening window opens on Sunday, 12 April.

With their systems performing well, Europe’s recently launched Galileo navigation satellites have carried out a set of manoeuvres that will take them down to their working positions in orbit.

In 1997 when the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, or TRMM, was launched, its mission was scheduled to last just a few years. Now, 17 years later, the TRMM mission has come to an end. NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) stopped TRMM’s science operations and data collection on 8 April after the spacecraft depleted its fuel reserves.

In 1997 when the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, or TRMM, was launched, its mission was scheduled to last just a few years. Now, 17 years later, the TRMM mission has come to an end. NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) stopped TRMM’s science operations and data collection on 8 April after the spacecraft depleted its fuel reserves.

NASA’s Solar Probe Plus mission — which will fly closer to the sun than any spacecraft has before — reached a major milestone last month when it successfully completed its Critical Design Review, or CDR.

The Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS), which will fly aboard NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System-1 satellite, has been successfully integrated with the spacecraft. CrIS is the fourth instrument to be integrated on the JPSS-1 spacecraft.

Surrey Satellite Technology U.S. LLC (SST-US) announced its collaboration with Aerojet Rocketdyne, Inc. and NanoRacks LLC on the development of the FeatherCraft platform, a 100-kilogram-class satellite platform optimised for deployment from the International Space Station (ISS).