Satellite News

Arianespace’s third flight of 2016 has successfully orbited five European satellites of varying sizes into three different low Earth orbits during a mission lasting four hours.

The 51.30 hour countdown for the 28 April launch of the country’s seventh and final navigation satellite, IRNSS-1G, on board Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C33 from the spaceport of Sriharikota began today.

Space Systems Loral (SSL) announced it was awarded a contract to provide a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite to an undisclosed customer.

e2v has won a major contract with Airbus DS GmbH to design, develop and supply bespoke Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors for the advanced METimage radiometers that will be integrated in a series of three European Space Agency’s Meteorological Operational (MetOp) second generation weather satellites.

Thales Alenia Space announced the official kickoff of its Stratobus research & development project. Stratobus is an autonomous stratospheric airship that was just approved by the French government’s “investment in the future” programme, with funding of EUR17 million. These funds cover a 24-month development phase for key enabling technologies, culminating in the construction of a demonstrator. Since the project has also won support from four different French regions, additional funding of about EUR3 million is expected.

Lockheed Martin reported financial results for the first quarter 2016.