Satellite News

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) performed an Earth swing-by operation of the Asteroid Explorer “Hayabusa2” on 3 December.

Following the completion of successful on-orbit testing, the U.S. Navy accepted the fourth Lockheed Martin-built Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite on 30 November.

Inmarsat announced that the third satellite in its new Global Xpress fleet, Inmarsat-5 F3 (I-5 F3), which was launched in August 2015, successfully completed all its in-orbit testing (IOT) and that the spacecraft is now fully operational and station-kept in its final orbital position.

Following the completion of in-orbit testing, Russia’s new communications and broadcasting satellite, Ekspress-AM8, has been commissioned as of 1 December 2015, at its nominal orbital slot, 14 degrees West.

Under an greement signed today, NOAA and EUMETSAT will establish and operate a Joint Polar System composed of EUMETSAT’s Metop-Second Generation (Metop-SG) satellites, NOAA’s JPSS satellites and shared ground systems and services.

During the final step of VV06 launch campaign, a technical issue on the Vega launch vehicle required additional analysis. The launch initially scheduled for 2 December 2015 is postponed.

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

Eutelsat has updated its launch schedule, which includes a record four satellites to be launched in the coming four months of a total of seven satellites to launch by 2019.