Satellite News

Rocket: Vega; Payload: Sentinel-2A; Date: 23 June 2015, 0152 UTC; Launch site: Kourou, French Guyana. The rocket deployed its 1,140-kg-class passenger after a mission lasting just under 55 minutes.

Rocket: Soyuz 2-1B; Payload: Kosmos 2506 (Persona-1 #3?); Date: 23 June 2015, 1644 UTC; Launch site: Plesetsk, Russia. The payload is believed to be the third Persona electro-optical reconnaissance satellite, also known as Kvarts (Quartz).

ESA confirmed that its Rosetta mission will be extended until the end of September 2016, at which point the spacecraft will most likely be landed on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Together with national space agencies and industry, ESA is working to develop next-generation software for spacecraft control and monitoring. The initiative is to see most space organisations in Europe adopting a common infrastructure, which will improve efficiency, lower technical risk and deliver a major boost to European industrial competitiveness.

UrtheCast Corp. announced that its subsidiary has entered into a definitive agreement with Elecnor, S.A. to acquire Elecnor’s Earth Observation business dba Deimos Imaging (the “Acquisition”) for an aggregate price of EUR74.2 million, subject to customary working capital adjustments, with EUR69 million due at closing and EUR5.2 million to be paid over the next five years.

Space Systems/Loral (SSL) was selected to provide a broadcasting satellite for Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation (B-SAT), Japan. The satellite will be used for Direct-to-Home (DTH) television service in Japan.

UrtheCast Corp. announced plans to build, launch and operate the world’s first fully-integrated, multispectral optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) commercial constellation of Earth Observation satellites, to be deployed over multiple launches expected in 2019 and 2020.

COM DEV International Ltd. has received a series of orders to supply multiplexers, switches and ancillary equipment for a commercial communications satellite.