Satellite News

ISRO on 19 February successfully hot tested its ‘Cryo CE 20’ Engine for a flight duration of 640 seconds, with the space agency Chairman A. S. KiranKumar describing the feat as a “phenomenal achievement in the shortest time.”

Orbital ATK, Inc. announced the successful completion of its fourth cargo delivery mission (OA-4) to the International Space Station (ISS), including the initial demonstration flight and three operational missions under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract. Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft delivered 3,465 kg of cargo to the ISS, the largest cargo shipment to date by a commercial company.

DigitalGlobe, Inc. announced the formation of a joint venture with TAQNIA, a firm dedicated to accelerating technology development for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in partnership with KACST to develop a constellation of highly capable small imaging satellites to support the needs of customers around the world.

Intelsat S.A. announced preliminary financial results for the three months and full year ending 31 December 2015.

Iridium Communications Inc. announced that it has been awarded a US$8.57 million task order, under the Gateway Modernisation Efforts contract, from the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), to make upgrades and enhancements to the U.S. Department of Defense’s dedicated Iridium gateway in preparation for the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation.

On 22 February 1986, exactly 30 years ago, France’s first civilian optical Earth observation satellite, Spot-1, financed by the French space agency CNES, was launched by an Ariane 1 rocket.