Satellite News

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. announced that the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) has exercised an option for a contract announced in June 2016.

Orbital ATK, Inc. said the company and Stratolaunch Systems have embarked on a multi-year production-based partnership that will offer significant cost advantages to air-launch customers.

Both satellites launched aboard an Ariane 5 on 5 October are healthy and have begun post-launch manoeuvres.

French space agency CNES and Thales Alenia Space conducted a demonstration under real conditions in July 2016 that will bring significant new evolutions to the satellite navigation market, the company said. The demonstration was designed to validate the performance of Precise Point Positioning (PPP), a new technology operated via the EGNOS satnav augmentation service.

Unfavourable weather conditions over the Spaceport in French Guiana have resulted in a 24-hour delay for Arianespace’s Ariane 5 mission with the Sky Muster II and GSAT-18 payloads.

NASA and Orbital ATK successfully completed a pre-launch Flight Readiness Review (FRR) and established a targeted launch date of 14 October (UTC) for the OA-5 cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station.

United Launch Alliance has been given an US$860 million contract modification for work on the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle for Delta IV and Atlas V rockets.

The initial Ariane 5 to loft four global positioning satellites for Europe’s Galileo navigation system has begun its build-up at the Spaceport in French Guiana for a milestone Arianespace mission in November.