Satellite News

NASA’s Launch Services Program has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for new commercial Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS) for small satellites, often called CubeSats or nanosatellites, and experiments on science missions using a class of rockets smaller than any currently available to the agency.

An RS-25 engine fired up for 500 seconds 11 June at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. It was the third firing of an RS-25 development engine on the A-1 test stand at Stennis.

Boeing said it is on contract to build ABS-8, the third all-electric propulsion 702SP (small platform) satellite for ABS, a commercial satellite provider based in Bermuda and Hong Kong. This satellite will expand broadcast and enterprise services to Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, Russia, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

When NASA launches its next mission on the journey to Mars – a stationary lander in 2016 – the flight will include two CubeSats. This will be the first time CubeSats have flown in deep space. If this flyby demonstration is successful, the technology will provide NASA the ability to quickly transmit status information about the main spacecraft after it lands on Mars.

China plans to send its first full electric propulsion satellite into orbit around 2020, providing broadband communication data transmission to China and neighbouring regions, according to Wang Min, deputy chief designer of the communication satellite, at the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST).

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. will support Principal Investigator Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University (ASU) to develop the Thermal Emission Imaging System for a NASA mission to study Jupiter’s moon, Europa.

COM DEV International Ltd. announced second quarter financial results for the three-month period ending 30 April 2015.