Satellite News

Iridium Communications Inc. announced that SpaceX successfully launched five Iridium NEXT satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Shortly after deployment, Iridium confirmed successful communication with all five new satellites, formally bringing the total number of Iridium NEXT satellites in orbit to 55.

The recently launched GOES-17 weather satellite has a serious cooling problem that could affect the quality of its pictures. The satellite’s primary weather-monitoring instrument — the Advanced Baseline Imager — is not performing to specifications for about six hours each day.

NASA has awarded a contract to Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, Boulder, Colorado, for the primary instrument components for the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST).

A collaboration between Analytical Graphics Inc. (AGI) and Thoth Technology brings the 46-meter radio astronomy antenna at the Algonquin Radio Observatory (ARO) to the commercial space situational awareness (SSA) market.