Satellite News

Thales Alenia Space announced two milestones in the Solar Orbiter mission to investigate the Sun and the heliosphere. It has completed construction of the heat shield on behalf of Airbus Defence and Space for the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft, and delivered to the Italian space agency ASI the scientific instrument METIS (Multi-Element Telescope for Imaging and Spectroscopy).

SES S.A. announced financial results for the three months ended 31 March 2017.

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is preparing to observe Ceres on 29 April from an “opposition” position, directly between the dwarf planet’s Occator Crater and the Sun. While preparing for this observation, one of Dawn’s two remaining reaction wheels stopped functioning on 23 April.

Intelsat S.A. announced financial results for the three months ending 31 March 2017.

Iridium Communications Inc. reported financial results for the first quarter of 2017.

Telesat announced that Erwin Hudson has joined the company as Vice President, Telesat LEO, reporting to President and CEO, Dan Goldberg.

The Spaceport in French Guiana has resumed its pace for Arianespace’s busy 2017 mission manifest, with operations recommencing for the three subsequent launches – using two Ariane 5s and one Soyuz.

The launch of India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F09) carrying GSAT-9 [aka South Asia Satellite], is scheduled on Friday, 5 May 2017 at 1127 UTC.