Satellite News

NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP) has awarded multiple Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS) contracts to provide small satellites (SmallSats) — also called CubeSats, microsats or nanosatellites — access to low-Earth orbit.

The Russian Defence Ministry has received two satellites as part of the country’s new missile early warning network, Deputy Minister Yuri Borisov said.

Malin Space Science Systems, Inc. (MSSS), has delivered the camera system it produced for NASA’s 2016 OSIRIS-REx mission to return a sample of the asteroid Bennu. This system, collectively called the Touch-and-Go-Camera-System (TAGCAMS), consists of three camera heads and a digital video recorder (DVR).

Satellite, launch and communications provider Spaceflight announced its third and newest ground station in Invercargill, New Zealand is now fully operational.

Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) has signed an expanded satellite support contract with a total value of NOK205 million (EUR21,8 million) with the European Space Agency for the Sentinel satellites in the Copernicus programme.

Elara Comunicaciones, a provider of telecommunications and technology services in Mexico, has once boosted its capacity on the Eutelsat Communications fleet through a multi-year, multi-transponder and multi-satellite agreement with Eutelsat Americas that will allow Elara to provide data services in Mexico and across Latin America.

The world’s leading satellite operators, Eutelsat, Hispasat, Inmarsat, Intelsat, SES, Thuraya and Yahsat, under the umbrella of the EMEA Satellite Operators Association (ESOA) and the Global VSAT Forum (GVF), announced the signing of a Crisis Connectivity Charter with the global humanitarian community represented by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC).

A Proton M launch vehicle, utilising a 5-burn Briz M mission design, will lift off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, with the TURKSAT-4B satellite on board on 16 October 2015 at 2040 UTC.