Satellite News

Airbus Defence and Space and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed a contract for the early development of a system that will ensure the safe and precise landing of the Russian Luna-Resource lunar lander.

Bolivia is set to make its fifth loan payment worth US$10 million to the China Development Bank for a satellite China helped the South American country build and launch, the Bolivian Space Agency (ABE) announced.

Orbital ATK announced it conducted a full-power “hot fire” test of the upgraded first stage propulsion system of its Antares medium-class rocket using new RD-181 main engines, built by Energomash in Russia. The 30-second test took place on 31 May 2016 at Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) Pad 0A. Initial indications are that the test was fully successful.

SES S.A. announced that its new SES-9 spacecraft is entering commercial service. SES-9 has successfully completed its testing and reached its orbital position at around 108.2 degrees East where it has joined SES-7 and will replace NSS-11.

OneWeb Satellites, a joint venture equally owned by Airbus Defence and Space and OneWeb, has selected the first three top-tier subcontractors. The supply contracts have been signed with MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) from Canada, Sodern from France and Teledyne Defence (a business unit of Teledyne Microwave Solutions) from the United Kingdom.

Aireon LLC, developer of the world’s first space-based global air traffic surveillance service, announced that Harris Corporation finished production on all Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) 1090 Extended Squitter receiver payloads that will enable its global air traffic surveillance service.

China will put into space five new scientific satellites within about five years as part of the country’s space science programme, a national science chief said.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected Tyvak International SRL – an originator of nanosatellite technology – to demonstrate the feasibility of having nanosatellites provide autonomous inspection and support services on the International Space Station (ISS) while in orbit.