Satellite News

The next spacecraft to be orbited for Europe’s Copernicus Earth observation programme – Sentinel-1B – is now undergoing pre-launch checkout at the Spaceport, readying it for the 22 April lift-off on Arianespace’s upcoming Soyuz flight from French Guiana.

China’s first dark matter detection satellite has completed three months of in-orbit testing and found 460 million high energy particles in a 92-day flight, officials said.

On behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA has awarded a sole source contract modification to Northrop Grumman for two Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder instruments for NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Polar Follow On / JPSS-3 and JPSS-4 Missions.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded Indra a contract to develop the fourth version of the intermediate frequency modem IMBU Mk4, or Integrated Modem and Baseband Unit, which plays a key role in checking and verifying communications across the agency’s ESTRACK network, used to communicate with and monitor satellites and space missions. Indra will deliver the first of the ten ordered units in 2017.

A pair of spaceships is getting ready for launch to the International Space Station in less than a week. A Soyuz rocket will launch three new Expedition 47 crew members from Kazakhstan on 18 March. On 23 March (UTC), Orbital ATK will launch its Cygnus cargo ship from Florida and deliver new science, spacewalk gear and crew supplies to the station crew.

The launch of India’s IRNSS 1G navigation satellite has been rescheduled for 28 April.

According to General John Hyten, the head of U.S. Air Force Space Command, there is little hope that the malfunctioning DMSP-19 military weather satellite can be rescued.

Roskosmos has announced that the recently launched Resurs P3 satellite successfully reached its operational orbit following the first of the two planned manoeuvres despite an only partially deployed solar array.