Satellite News

Rocket: Atlas V 531; Payload: NROL-101; Date: 13 November 2020, 2332 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The spacecraft was launched for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

Rocket: Chang Zheng-3B/G2; Payload: Tiantong 1-02; Date: 12 November 2020, 1559 UTC; Launch site: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. The satellite was deployed into a 170 km x 35,820 km x 28.44 degrees geosynchronous transfer orbit.

ESA has signed contracts with Thales Alenia Space in France and in Italy, and Airbus in Spain to build three of the new high-priority Copernicus satellite missions: CHIME, CIMR and LSTM, respectively.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected Airbus Defence and Space as prime contractor for the new Land Surface Temperature Monitoring (LSTM) mission. The contract is valued at EUR380 million which includes the development of one LSTM satellite, with an option for two further satellites.

Thales Alenia Space announced that it has signed a EUR93 million, first tranche of the EUR495 million global contract, with the European Space Agency (ESA) to build the Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer (CIMR) environmental monitoring satellites.

Thales Alenia Space announced that it has signed a EUR90 million first tranche contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to design and build the 2 environmental monitoring satellites of the Copernicus Hyperspectral Imaging Mission for the Environment (CHIME), the global amount being EUR455 million.

So how is space exploration likely to change going forward?

Four astronauts are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on Sunday (Nov. 15) for the first operational commercial crew flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, a mission called Crew-1.