Satellite News

Aerojet Rocketdyne said it has completed a series of successful hot-fire tests of its RL10 upper-stage rocket engine. The RL10 development engine, dubbed XR708, included a core main injector built using additive manufacturing technology, often referred to as 3-D printing.

Arianespace’s second launch of the year will orbit the Eutelsat 65 West A satellite for the international operator Eutelsat Communications. Lift-off is scheduled for 9 March, as early as possible in a three-hour launch window that opens at 0520 UTC.

Avio has completed and delivered the CPPS (Chemical Propulsion Subsystem) for the EDRS-C geostationary satellite. A commission including OHB, the prime contractor of the satellite, ESA (European Space Agency) and Airbus DS, both end customers, controlled the conformity of the propulsion module and authorised its shipment.

Asia Broadcast Satellite announced it has been granted landing rights from the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) to operate its first satellite in Brazil, ABS-3A, in both C and Ku-bands.

Hughes Network Systems, LLC announced a major software upgrade that adds significant capabilities to its JUPITER high-throughput satellite (HTS) networking solution. These new capabilities extend the range of applications that operators can offer customers and maximise the economic potential of HTS satellite capacity, Hughes said.

Intelsat General Corporation (IGC) and L-3 Communication Systems-West (L-3 CS-West) announced the successful demonstration of new automatic beam switching technology that enables Unmanned Airborne Systems (UAS) fitted with L-3 CS-West satellite communications packages to operate on Intelsat’s high-throughput satellite (HTS) platform, Intelsat EpicNG.

Gogo announced it is partnering with Intelsat to leverage the first shared GEO/LEO satellite network for in-flight connectivity. Under a long-term agreement, Gogo’s next generation in-flight connectivity technology will be powered by a high performance shared network featuring multi-layered Ku-band capacity on the Intelsat EpicNG high throughput geosynchronous (GEO) satellites combined with OneWeb’s planned low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: SES-9; Date: 5 March 2016, 2335 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The satellite was placed into a 334 km x 40,648 km x 28.0 degrees supersynchronous geostationary transfer orbit 31 minutes after lift-off.