Satellite News

Two Russian space companies and Iranian firm Bonyan Danesh Shargh have signed an agreement on joint development of an Earth remote-sensing satellite system for Iran, Russia’s Federal Space Agency Roskosmos said.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) said the company and the U.S. Air Force have implemented Off-site Vertical Integration (OVI) of several structural elements and the Centaur upper stage for the Atlas V launch vehicle.

A Proton M/Briz M launch vehicle, utilising a five-burn Briz M supersynchronous transfer orbit mission design, will lift off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, with the Inmarsat-5 F3 satellite on board, on 28 August 2015, 1144 UTC.

A camera suite that will allow NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission to see a near-Earth asteroid, map it, and pick a safe and interesting place to touch the surface and collect a sample, has arrived at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver for installation to the spacecraft.

Lockheed Martin said company scientists are packing three times the power density into a key satellite cooling system whose previous design is already the lightest in its class. This project continues the company’s effort to reduce component size, enabling compact, higher-power spacecraft payloads and smaller sensor platforms back on Earth.

Boeing said it expected to cut as many as “several hundred” jobs in its satellite business through the end of 2015 due to a downturn in U.S. military spending and delays in commercial satellite orders.

According to Euroconsult’s newly released report, Satellites to be Built & Launched by 2024, 140 satellites with launch mass over 50 kg will be launched on average each year over the next decade for governments and commercial companies. In comparison with last year’s forecast, the number of satellites is due to grow more than the market value over the decade.

Orbital ATK, Inc. announced that it recently signed a contract with Lockheed Martin to produce propellant and pressurant tanks for Lockheed Martin’s updated A2100 satellite platform. The five-year contract continues a 20-year relationship between Orbital ATK and Lockheed Martin for satellite fuel tanks produced by the company’s Space Systems Group in Commerce, California.