Satellite News

The Space Alliance, formed by Thales Alenia Space (Thales 67%, Leonardo 33%) and Telespazio (Leonardo 67%, Thales 33%), today signed a partnership with the US-based company Spaceflight Industries.

Telesat announced that Bell Canada has signed a 15-year contract for substantially all of the HTS spot beam capacity over northern Canada on Telesat’s new Telstar 19 VANTAGE satellite.

Arianespace will launch four new satellites for the Galileo constellation, using two Ariane 62 versions of the next-generation Ariane 6 rocket from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana.

TheU.S. Air Force has accepted two new satellites into operation 12 September to expand their Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program’s ability to characterise and track objects in space to support a neighbourhood watch out in orbit.

Elements for Arianespace’s Ariane 5 mission in December have been delivered to the Spaceport in French Guiana for the heavy-lift launcher’s second flight at the service of Europe’s Galileo global satellite navigation system.

Virgin Orbit announced that commercial satellite developer Cloud Constellation Corporation has selected Virgin Orbit as its launch partner for a dozen satellites that will become the communications backbone of the SpaceBelt system.

Boeing and the Orbital Propulsion section of ArianeGroup are jointly developing a next-generation ion propulsion system based on the dual-mode Radio Frequency Ion Thruster (RIT) 2X subsystem.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is on final approach to Saturn, following confirmation by mission navigators that it is on course to dive into the planet’s atmosphere on Friday, 15 September.