Satellite News

Roskosmos plans to develop a natural-gas-powered rocket engine. The federal space exploration programme for 2016-2025 guarantees funding for the project.

NASA has awarded three cargo contracts to ensure the critical science, research and technology demonstrations are delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) from 2019 through 2024. The agency unveiled its selection of Orbital ATK of Dulles, Virginia; Sierra Nevada Corporation of Sparks, Nevada; and SpaceX of Hawthorne, California.

The U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center awarded the first two Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs) for shared public-private investments in Rocket Propulsion System (RPS) prototypes.

JAXA’s ASTRO-H satellite, developed with institutions in Japan, the US, Canada and Europe, is ready to be mounted on an H-IIA rocket for launch on 12 February.

NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter has broken the record to become humanity’s most distant solar-powered emissary. The milestone occurred on 13 January when Juno was about 793 million kilometers from the Sun.

Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems said it has begun working on a new LEO satellite platform.

McMurdo has been selected by a Northern Africa search and rescue (SAR) authority to deploy their next-generation MEOSAR (Medium Earth Orbit Search and Rescue) satellite-aided SAR system. The contract is valued at over EUR4 million (US$4.5 million) with a performance period of 16 months.