Satellite News

Rocket: Zenit 3 SLBF/Fregat SB; Payload: Elektro-L2; Date: 11 December 2015, 1345 UTC, Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Separation of the Elektro-L 2 weather satellite from the Fregat upper stage is scheduled for 2243 UTC [too late for this issue].

India will be launching six Singaporean satellites with a total mass of of around 625 kg on 16 December through its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) decided to launch the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 30 (H-IIA F30) with the X-ray Astronomy Satellite “ASTRO-H” onboard on 12 February.

Arianespace has taken over full responsibility for the Vega rocket’s commercial exploitation at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

NASA has awarded Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) wholly-owned subsidiary Orbital Technologies Corporation (ORBITEC) a competitive indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) task order contract to support the development, demonstration and verification of advanced propulsion system technologies under the Research and Technologies for Aerospace Propulsion Systems 2 (RTAPS2) for NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. has signed a multi-million dollar contract with DigitalGlobe Inc. to provide multiple international ground stations with upgrades to receive and process imagery and data directly from DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-4 satellite, in addition to the company’s existing satellite constellation.

Inmarsat and Turksat, the Turkish state-owned satellite operator, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore opportunities through the formation of a strategic partnership, initially focussed on the defence and aviation sectors.