Satellite News

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle mission 4 (OTV-4), the U.S. Air Force’s unmanned, reusable space plane, landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility on 7 May 2017.

OTIS (Optical Telescope Element and Integrated Science), the payload module hosting the telescope and the instruments for the giant James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), has been shipped by NASA to the Johnson Space Centre (JSC) in Houston, Texas.

Spacecom, the operator of the Amos satellite fleet, announced that Nepal’s Dish Media Network has furthered its long-term association with Amos-4.

Rocket: GSLV-F09; Payload: GSAT-9 [South Asia Satellite]; Date: 5 May 2017, 1127 UTC; Launch site: Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, India. The satellite was successfully deployed into a 169 km x 36,105 km x 20.65 degrees Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.

After collecting over 4.3 million Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) messages from aircraft since it launched in September 2016, the 3.5 kilogram 10 cm x 10 cm x 34 cm CanX-7 nanosatellite deployed its four drag sails. CanX-7 was built by Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS).

The heavy-lift Ariane 5 for Arianespace’s fourth flight of 2017 is now in the launch zone, poised for a dual-payload mission from the Spaceport in French Guiana on 4 May to orbit telecommunications relay platforms for Brazil and South Korea.

When spacecraft and satellites travel through space they encounter tiny, fast moving particles of space dust and debris. If the particle travels fast enough, its impact appears to create electromagnetic radiation that can damage or even disable the craft’s electronic systems.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. reported financial results for the first quarter ending 31 March 2017.