Satellite News

Thales Alenia Space announced the signing of a new contract with Orbital ATK, Inc. Under terms of the agreement, Thales Alenia Space will supply nine additional Pressurised Cargo Modules (PCM) to Orbital ATK for upcoming cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS).

Millennium Space Systems announced that SSL has placed a follow-on order for 23 RWA-1000 flight reaction wheels. This follows the original order for 52 reaction wheels now that Millennium has delivered five ship sets of those wheels.

Kongsberg Norspace AS has won a contract with Airbus Defence and Space for providing highly integrated L-band Pre and Post processors for the first two Inmarsat-6 satellites. The contract covers development and delivery of flight hardware with a value of NOK 250 – 300 million (EUR27 – 32 million, US$29 – 35 million). The development is supported by ESA through the ARTES 3-4 programme.

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announced the successful completion of ISS Integration Certification Milestone 1 for the Dream Chaser Cargo System under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS2) contract.

Rocket: Soyuz-FG; Payload: Soyuz MS-01; Date: 7 July 2016, 0336 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The first crewed transportation spacecraft of the new Soyuz MS series was successfully put into a low Earth orbit and is headed for the International Space Station (ISS).

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover put itself into safe mode on 2 July, ceasing most activities other than keeping itself healthy and following a prescribed sequence for resuming communications.

Joining a delegation of telecoms CEOs, members of the Board of the EMEA Satellite Operators Association welcomed and signed an industry Manifesto that embodied the contribution of key telecoms industry players in shaping the EU vision for 5G.

For the first time, infrared data from the Lockheed Martin-built Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) will be made available for new military and civilian uses at the U.S. Air Force’s recently opened data utilisation lab in Boulder, Colorado.