Satellite News

Representatives of the technical management and the state commission at the Baikonur cosmodrome today made a decision on the readiness of the space transportation system consisting of the new-series cargo transportation spacecraft Progress MS-03 and launch vehicle (LV) Soyuz-U to be rolled out and erected on the launch pad.

Space Systems Loral (SSL) announced that the JCSAT-16 satellite, which it designed and built for Sky Perfect JSAT Corporation, has arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, where it will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

Final preparations are underway at Lockheed Martin to ship DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-4 Earth imaging satellite to Vandenberg Air Force Base for a 15 September launch.

Marotta Controls announced that it has been awarded a contract from Airbus Defence and Space to provide high pressure Miniature Solenoid Valves for the Propulsion Modules of the MetOp Second Generation satellite constellation.

Reaction Engines Ltd. has signed a EUR10 million European Space Agency (ESA) contract which will enable the development of a ground based demonstrator of SABRE (Synergistic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine), a new class of aerospace engine which is highly scalable with multiple potential applications in hypersonic travel and space access.

The Sentinel-3A satellite, built by Thales Alenia Space and dedicated to environmental monitoring and oceanography, was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia on 16 February 2016. It has just passed its in-orbit commissioning review (IOCR), showing that all functions are operating correctly and delivering the specified performance.

13 July 2016: Inmarsat and VT iDirect are forming a joint research & development (R&D) team – i2 – to support the development of the next generation satellite communications (satcom) technologies.

With demand for Earth imagery increasing, manufacturers are expected to produce some 1,935 remote sensing satellites over the next 10 years, according to Forecast International.