Satellite News

Rocket: Proton M/Briz M; Payload: Eutelsat 5 West B [Eutelsat 5WB], Mission Extension Vehicle-1 [MEV-1]; Date: 9 October 2019, 1017 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The delivery of the satellites into a supersynchronous transfer orbit was to take a record 15 hours and 54 minutes [too late for this issue].

Raytheon Company said it will develop new space systems and flight software, and provide engineering, training and operations support for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by Caltech, under a five-year, $150 million contract. The contract could potentially be worth US$300 million over 10 years if all options are exercised.

US-based EOS Data Analytics Inc. (EOS), a space portfolio company of Noosphere Ventures, has unveiled EOS SAR – a project to develop its own synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors intended for deployment in a constellation of microsatellites.

Russia’s Roskosmos state space corporation has launched the operation of its Kanopus-V satellite system to monitor natural and man-made disasters.

Russian space agency Roskosmos patented a spacecraft which can change its shape if approached by a foreign spy satellite, according to a descriptive note attached to the patent.