Satellite News

The fifth Vega has completed its build-up at the Spaceport in French Guiana, allowing final checkout to begin ahead of the lightweight launch vehicle’s mission with Europe’s Sentinel-2A satellite.

NASA’s mission concept — to conduct a detailed survey of Jupiter’s moon Europa and investigate its habitability — has successfully completed its first major review by the agency and now is entering the development phase known as formulation.

The U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s seventh Wideband Global satellite communication spacecraft arrived at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 28 May.

QinetiQ has delivered four electric propulsion thrusters to the European Space Agency (ESA), to be used on the BepiColombo mission to Mercury.

ABB has won a contract to supply the main component, a Michelson interferometer, for the satellite of the GOSAT-2 mission that will enable the Japanese government to continue and enhance spaceborne measurement of major greenhouse gases.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. has signed a contract for C$11 million with the Canadian Space Agency to design and develop upgraded camera systems for the Mobile Servicing System (MSS). The contract includes an option for the build and test of flight cameras.

An international Earth-observing mission launched in 2011 to study the salinity of the ocean surface ended on 8 June when an essential part of the power and attitude control system for the SAC-D spacecraft stopped operating.