Satellite News

Telesat announced its plans to procure a new satellite with two high throughput payloads, one in Ku-band and the other in Ka-band.

An agreement has been reached at the United Nations World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva on the allocation of radiofrequency spectrum to allow the use of satellites for real-time global flight tracking in civil aviation.

Rocket: Ariane 5 ECA; Payload: Arabsat-6B (Badr 7), GSAT-15; Date: 10 November 2015, 2134 UTC; Launch site: Kourou, French Guiana. The two satellites were placed into geostationary transfer orbit after a flight lasting approximately 43 minutes.

Intelsat S.A. announced that Intelsat 29e, the first of the Intelsat EpicNG high throughput satellites, is scheduled to launch on 27 January 2016, aboard an Arianespace Ariane 5 ECA launch vehicle from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.

Russian and Chinese experts are discussing the possibility of creating a global low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite system called “Star of Happiness,” according to Russian reports.

A General Dynamics-led team successfully completed, on-schedule, the next phase of the implementation, integration and test of the NASA Space Network Ground Segment Sustainment (SGSS) programme, Increment A4.

Rocket: Chang Zheng 4B; Payload: Yaogan Weixing-28 (Yaogan 28, YG-28); Date: 8 November 2015, 0706 UTC; Launch site: Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China. The satellite was deployed to a 459 x 482 km sun-synchronous orbit.

Arianespace has given the go-ahead for its 10th flight in 2015: the 10 November dual-passenger mission with Ariane 5 from the Spaceport in French Guiana.