Satellite News

Viasat Inc. announced the first ViaSat-3 payload module structure, built by Boeing, arrived at Viasat’s Tempe, Arizona facility. With the initial payload module structure now at Viasat’s facility, the company can begin payload integration and testing for the first ViaSat-3 class satellite that is scheduled to provide broadband service over the Americas, starting in 2020.

The integration of Sentinel-6A, the first of two satellites to continue measuring sea levels from 2020, has reached a new milestone and its critical phase: the propulsion module has been “mated” with the main structure of the satellite at Airbus.

SSL announced it has been selected by NASA to study the feasibility of habitable space platforms for building commercial satellites and how they might unlock new capabilities and business paradigms.

The Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) has returned to the quiet mode it suffered in the early spring, despite the efforts of personnel at NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab.

Fragments of Russia’s Progress MS-08 cargo spacecraft, which was deorbited on 30 August 2018 following a weeklong experiment, splashed down in a remote area of the Pacific Ocean, a Russian Mission Control Center official said.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and JAXA announced the launch of the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 40 (H-IIA F40) from Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the JAXA Tanegashima Space Center on 29 October (UTC).

Aerojet Rocketdyne successfully completed its early systems integration test for NASA’s Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS) programme, a next-generation propulsion capability that will further enable deep space missions. Under the AEPS contract, Aerojet Rocketdyne will develop and qualify a 13-kilowatt Hall thruster string.

Gazprom Space Systems (GSS) and Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. have signed a contract with an estimated value of US$18 million, to provide broadband connectivity across Russia. Gilat will deliver its multiservice platform and user terminals to operate over the new Yamal 601 Ka satellite, which will replace Yamal-202.