Satellite News

The U. S. Air Force awarded launch services contracts for the National Reconnaissance Office’s NROL-52 and NROL-71 missions to United Launch Alliance on the existing Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Phase 1 Block Buy contract.

Spacecom said is currently employing all of its capabilities and those of its partners to re-establish communication with the Amos 5 satellite and at this point, does not have further information regarding the cause of this anomaly.

Phase Four LLC, a satellite propulsion company, has received a US$1 million contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), in support of the effort to deliver a fully-integrated flight unit of the CubeSat Ambipolar Thruster (“CAT”). The contract also includes options for long-duration orbital flight testing and design enhancements for microsatellite-class missions.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. announced that it has signed a contract amendment for C$3.1 million with the Canadian Space Agency authorising the procurement of long lead items for the new camera systems for the Mobile Servicing System (MSS).

Contact has been lost with communications satellite Amos 5, starting at 0445 UTC on 21 November, its operator, Spacecom, said in a statement. The company did not rule out a total loss of the spacecraft.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 3B/G2; Payload: LaoSat-1; Date: 20 November 2015, 1607 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China.

The latest satellite for the European Commission’s Copernicus environmental programme has left France bound for the Plesetsk launch site in Russia and launch late next month.

NASA placed its first mission order from SpaceX to launch astronauts from U.S. soil. This is the second in a series of four guaranteed orders NASA will make under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts. Boeing received its first crew mission order in May.