Satellite News

Iridium Communications Inc. announced that it has contracted with SpaceX for an eighth Falcon 9 launch. Along for the ride are the twin-satellites of the NASA/German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission, which will be deployed into a separate low-Earth orbit, marking the first rideshare deal for Iridium.

An experimental space junk collector designed to pull rubbish from the Earth’s orbit has run into trouble, scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.

PacSci EMC and Pyroalliance, a subsidiary of Airbus Safran Launchers, have been selected by RUAG Space AB to provide the Payload Release and Sequencing System (PRSS), a critical component to release satellites into space for a satellite constellation project.

SES S.A. announced that Satcom Global will become a key partner for SES. The differentiated mobility solution will form a part of Satcom Global’s new Ku-band VSAT service, Aura, providing high-speed connectivity to maritime, offshore and land customers.

NASA has successfully completed the exploration upper stage (EUS) preliminary design review for the Space Launch System rocket.

Intelsat announced that Intelsat 33e, the second of the Intelsat EpicNG high throughput satellites (HTS), successfully completed all in-orbit testing and entered service on 29 January 2017.

Harris Corporation announced a definitive agreement under which an affiliate of Veritas Capital, a private equity investment firm, will acquire Harris’ government IT services business for US$690 million in cash.

Rocket: Soyuz 2.1-b; Payload: Hispasat 36W-1; Date:28 January 2017, 0106 UTC; Launch Site: Sinnamary, French Guiana. The satellite separated from the Fregat upper stage 35 minutes after lift-off as planned and was deployed into geostationary transfer orbit. Contact with the spacecraft was established about 17 minutes later.