Satellite News

Space Systems Loral (SSL) has been selected to build a powerful, high throughput communications satellite for Telesat. The new spacecraft, called Telstar 19 VANTAGE, will have two high throughput payloads, one in Ku-band and the other in Ka-band, to serve markets in Latin America, the North Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean and Northern Canada.

NASA has successfully installed the first of 18 flight mirrors onto the James Webb Space Telescope, beginning a critical piece of the observatory’s construction.

Rocket: H-IIA (Upgrade); Payload: Telstar 12 VANTAGE (Telstar 12V); Date: 24 November 2015, 0650 UTC; Launch site: Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. The launch vehicle flew as planned and, at about 4 hours and 27 minutes after lift-off, the separation of the Telstar 12 VANTAGE satellite was confirmed.

NASA commercial partner Orbital ATK is targeting Thursday, 3 December for the launch of its fourth contracted mission to the International Space Station under the agency’s Commercial Resupply Services contract.

Aerojet Rocketdyne was awarded a contract by NASA to restart production of the RS-25 engine for the Space Launch System.

NASA has selected Virgin Galactic as a partner in its Collaborative Opportunities programme.

Aerojet Rocketdyne has signed a contract with Boeing valued at nearly US$200 million. Under its Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) subcontract to Boeing, Aerojet Rocketdyne is completing the design, development, qualification, certification and initial production of the Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 “Starliner” service module propulsion system.

Telstar 12 VANTAGE, built by Airbus Defence and Space for Telesat, is scheduled for launch on 24 November between 0623 and 0807 UTC on an H-IIA launch vehicle from Japan.