Satellite News

Euroconsult has released its “Satellites to be Built & Launched” report for 2021. The 17,000 satellites expected to be launched in the next ten years represents a fourfold increase over past decade, reflecting structural changes in the whole space ecosystem and a limited short-term impact of the pandemic.

Spire Global, Inc. has been awarded a contract under ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP) Element 2 Program funded by UK Space Agency.

Inmarsat is working on a UK Space Agency-funded test project with the European Space Agency, alongside British partners Goonhilly Earth Station Limited and GMVNSL Limited, to deliver the first UK-generated satellite navigation (satnav) signal. The project provides a potential platform for the UK to enhance its capabilities in the Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) domain post-Brexit.

Astranis announced it has signed an agreement to provide broadband capacity with Astranis MicroGEO communications satellites to Grupo Andesat, a cellular services backhaul provider that connects cell towers in Peru to the Internet backbone, in a new partnership that will bring broadband Internet access to thousands of rural communities across Peru for the first time.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a contract with Airbus to build the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (ARIEL) mission. ARIEL is the fourth medium-class mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme.

Rocket Ceres-1 Y2; Payload: five smallsats; Date: 7 December 2021, 0412 UTC; Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China. The satellites were deployed into approx. 480 km x 500 km x 97.40 degrees orbits.

Rocket: Atlas V 551/Centaur; Payload: STP-3 (STPSat 6, several smallsats); Date: 7 December 2021, 1022 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, USA. TP-3 marked ULA’s longest duration mission at seven hours and 10 minutes until spacecraft separation.