Satellite News

Brazil’s SGDC geostationary defence and secure communications satellite and South Korea’s Koreasat 7 telecommunications satellite, both built by Thales Alenia Space, have just arrived at the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, where they will be lofted in a dual launch on 21 March by Ariane 5.

China plans to launch its first cargo spacecraft in April, state media reported. The Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft will be carried into space by a Chang Zheng-7 Y2 rocket launched from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center.

An electrical short circuit may have led to the recent failure of the launch of the world’s smallest rocket capable of placing a satellite into orbit, JAXA said.

JAXA said it will revise its planned low-cost satellite launch vehicle and mount a second attempt as early as this year.

Orbital ATK has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center to provide payload integration and support services for Space Test Program Satellite 6 (STPSat-6).

Geoscience Australia, an agency of the Commonwealth of Australia, and Lockheed Martin have entered into a collaborative research project to show how augmenting signals from multiple GNSS constellations can enhance positioning, navigation, and timing for a range of applications.

Arianespace’s first Ariane 5 mission of 2017 – and the company’s second launch so far this year – was given clearance for lift-off from the Spaceport in French Guiana next week with digital TV broadcast satellite passengers for Brazil and Indonesia.

On 9 February 2017, NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, known as MMS, began a three-month long journey into a new orbit.