Satellite News

China will send six to eight new satellites of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) into space this year, according to the tenth China Satellite Navigation Conference.

Analytical Space Inc. (ASI) is launching a technology demonstration spacecraft intended to pave the way for users on the ground to gain faster access to satellite data. The spacecraft features a patented MITRE antenna that could help enable that application, as well as government missions including tactical communications and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.

UrtheCast Corp. has been selected to receive C$2.0 million from the Canadian Space Agency’s Space Technology Development Program (STDP), in two separate agreements of C$1.0 million each, for the development of new satellite technologies.

Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: 60 Starlink satellites; Date: 24 May 2019, 0230 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Approximately one hour and two minutes after lift-off, the Starlink satellites were deployed at an altitude of 440 km. They then used onboard propulsion to reach an operational altitude of 550 km.

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner propulsion system was successfully tested at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico.

GomSpace’s subsidiary in Luxembourg and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed a contract of EUR400.000 for the Phase A design of the Miniaturised Asteroid Remote Geophysical Observer (M-ARGO) mission.

Viasat Inc. announced financial results for the fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal year ending 31 March 2018

The attempt to launch a remote sensing Yaogan-33 satellite carried by a Chang Zheng-4C rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center was unsuccessful.