Satellite News

Mission managers for NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory have determined that its radar, one of the satellite’s two science instruments, can no longer return data.

Arx Pax, creator of Magnetic Field Architecture (MFA ) and hover engine technology, announced that it has entered into a Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA. The purpose of the collaboration is to use Arx Pax’s MFA to create micro-satellite capture devices that can manipulate and couple satellites from a distance. This can be achieved by using a magnetic tether between the objects.

Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio have reached an agreement with Teledife (General Directorate of IT and Advanced Technologies, Italian Ministry of Defence) to supply the ground segment to the Polish Ministry of Defense for the reception and processing of data and data products generated by Italy’s first and second-generation COSMO-SkyMed satellites.

Avanti Communications has signed a multi-year contract with Global RadioData Communications Ltd (GRC), to deliver secure, resilient Ka-band satellite connectivity to a variety of government, defence and emergency service customers.

Europe’s ninth and tenth Galileo satellites have been attached to the dispenser that will hold them during their flight up into space, then release them into their planned orbits.

LISA Pathfinder, ESA’s gravitational-wave detection technology demonstrator, is ready to be shipped to Kourou in French Guiana in preparation for its launch in November. Airbus Defence and Space, the world’s second largest space company, has completed a series of intensive tests on LISA Pathfinder’s propulsion and science modules at IABG, near Munich, to prove its space worthiness.