Satellite News

Iridium Communications Inc. announced that the Iridium Certus service will be commercially available in the second quarter of 2017.

Ten years ago the first images were returned from the CALIPSO and CloudSat atmospheric aerosol LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) and cloud-profiling radar missions following their joint launch on 28 April 2006. The satellites joined the A-Train, a coordinated group of international satellites providing simultaneous observation data used by scientists to advance knowledge of Earth-system science.

The government commission of the state-run corporation Roskosmos may make a final decision regarding the date of launching the manned spacecraft Soyuz MS to the International Space Station on 6 June, TASS reported citing a source in the space rocket industry.

XCOR Aerospace announced that it has decided to focus the majority of its resources on the final development of its liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen (LH2) programme.

The French Navy has awarded a four year contract covering the provision of a satellite-based maritime surveillance service to a consortium of Airbus Defence and Space and Telespazio France.

Ball Aerospace and World View are working together to explore the feasibility of a commercial capability to perform persistent remote sensing from the Stratollite platform. The collaboration will culminate with World View performing a long-duration, persistent Stratollite flight to demonstrate remote sensing capabilities for commercial applications.

The ULA Delta IV NROL-37 launch is now scheduled for 9 June from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The launch of the modernised Soyuz MS manned spacecraft, which is due to take a new expedition to the International Space Station, has been rescheduled for 7 July from 24 June due to control system flaws that may disrupt the ship’s docking with the ISS, TASS reported citing a source in the Russian aerospace industry.