Satellite News

DigitalGlobe’s Ikonos commercial imaging satellite, built by Lockheed Martin, was retired on 31 March after a more than 15-year service life. The satellite was owned and operated by DigitalGlobe, Inc., and performed on-orbit for more than double its original design life.

Speaking several days after the botched launch of a Proton rocket, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said the industry was plagued by “morally decayed” officials and underpaid personnel.

Forty years ago this week, a satellite ground station in Spain became the first to be assigned to what would become ESA. Since then, the network – Estrack – has expanded world-wide and today employs cutting-edge technology to link mission controllers with spacecraft.

Inmarsat provided an initial update on the launch schedule for Inmarsat-5 F3 (I-5 F3) following the failure of the preceding Proton Briz M launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 16 May. In related news, Mexico said that its Centenario satellite, which was lost in the crash, was fully insured.

Arianespace reported 2014 revenue of EUR1.399 billion, a 41% increase over 2013 revenue of EUR989 million.

Mexico’s Centenario satellite (aka MexSat-1) was lost in a Proton M launch failure likely caused by the malfunction of the rocket’s third stage.

The “stacking” of Vega’s solid propellant propulsion systems is complete with integration of its Zefiro 9 third stage at the Spaceport in French Guiana.

Northrop Grumman Corp. formed a scientific advisory board to guide its efforts to develop a lighter-than-air vehicle to explore Venus’s environment. The company’s Venus Atmospheric Maneuverable Platform (VAMP) concept is a long-lived, manoeuvrable, semi-buoyant platform that would coast through Venus’s clouds gathering atmospheric data.