Satellite News

Arianespace recently signed extensions to its ground service contracts covering the operation of the three launch complexes at the Guiana Space Center, for the Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega launchers. These agreements will extend by three years, through the end of 2019, the contracts that first took effect on 1 January 2012.

Oxia Planum has been recommended as the primary candidate for the landing site of the ExoMars 2018 mission. ExoMars 2018, comprising a rover and surface platform, is the second of two missions making up the ExoMars programme, a joint endeavour between ESA and Russia’s Roskosmos. Launch is planned for May 2018, with touchdown on the Red Planet in January 2019.

The U.S. Air Force’s 3rd Space Operations Squadron accepted satellite control authority of the Wideband Global Satcom-7 satellite here 13 October following a three month launch and early orbit checkout period.

Iridium Communications Inc. announced that it has successfully conducted the first ever voice and data ground test call over the next-generation Iridium Certus broadband network, currently under development. Iridium Certus is the new global broadband capability being introduced on Iridium NEXT.