Satellite News

Rocket: Soyuz-ST-A; Payload: FalconEye 2; Date: 2 December 2020, 0133 UTC; Launch site: Sinnamary, French Guiana. The satellite was placed in a 597 km x 599 km x 97.87 degrees Sun-synchronous orbit.

EUMETSAT has joined the signatories of the “joint statement on the institutional exploitation of Ariane 6 and Vega C” in favour of a European preference for launchers on institutional missions in Europe, initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA) in October 2018.

ISS-Reshetnev Company has completed assembly of the Ekspress-AMU3 telecommunications satellite.

A small-satellite mission to understand the lunar water cycle — detecting and mapping water on the lunar surface in order to investigate how its form, abundance, and location relate to geology — has received NASA approval to proceed with the next phase of its development.

RUAG Space has developed a new powerful computer for satellites called “Lynx”.

Teledyne e2v, part of the Teledyne Imaging Group, will supply infrared detectors for the UK-led climate change TRUTHS mission. The Traceable Radiometry Underpinning Terrestrial and Helio Studies (TRUTHS) mission aims to establish an SI-traceable space-based climate and calibration observing system to improve confidence in climate-change forecasts, often referred to as a standards laboratory in space.

SES Government Solutions (SES GS) has been awarded an Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) tests contract that allows to compete for individual task orders that together have a ceiling value of US$950 million.

The Martian underground may have been habitable billions of years ago even if the planet’s surface was a dry, frigid wasteland.