Satellite News

On its fourth flight with Ariane 5 in 2019, Arianespace will orbit two telecommunications satellites on 22 November (UTC): TIBA-1 for Thales Alenia Space and Airbus Defence and Space, on behalf of the Government of Egypt; and the GX5 satellite for the operator Inmarsat.

The JCSAT-18/Kacific1 communications satellite, built by Boeing, has arrived at SpaceX facilities in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where it will be launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket to geostationary orbit.

Airbus space engineers are currently testing the Copernicus Sentinel-6A satellite at the Space Test Centre of Industrieanlagen-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH (IABG) in Ottobrunn – near Munich – to prove its readiness for space. During the test campaign, which will last until spring 2020, the Airbus team will check that the satellite is able to survive the severe conditions of launch and the space environment.

NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster – Commercial (NEXT-C) fired for the first time recently inside a vacuum chamber at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The thruster is undergoing performance testing to verify it can withstand the extreme launch vibrations and hot and cold temperatures of spaceflight.