Satellite News

The first commercial launch of the Proton-M carrier rocket after engine checks is now scheduled to take place in April, the head of Russian space corporation Roskosmos Igor Komarov said.

The dual use (civil and military) SGDC Geostationary Defense and Strategic Communications Satellite built by Thales Alenia Space for Brazil is ready to be shipped the Kourou launch pad in French Guyana to be launched by Ariane 5 rocket next March.

DigitalGlobe, Inc. announced that the WorldView-4 satellite successfully completed in-orbit testing and calibration and began serving its first direct access customer on 1 February. Additional direct access customers will be added to WorldView-4 service throughout 2017.

Planet Labs has entered into an agreement with Alphabet/Google, wherein Planet will acquire the Terra Bella business including the SkySat constellation of satellites, and Google upon closing, will enter into a multi-year contract to purchase Earth-imaging data from Planet.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. has signed three contract amendments with international customers to provide information collected by the Radarsat-2 satellite. The contracts total approximately C$8 million.