Satellite News

Rocket: Chang Zheng 4C; Payload: Yaogan-34 02; Date: 17 March 2022, 0809 UTC; Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China. The classified satellite was deployed into a 1,092 km × 1,096 km × 63.40 degrees orbit.

The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) and Boeing recently completed a critical design review for the Protected Tactical SATCOM Prototype (PTS-P), validating Boeing’s technical maturity on the rapid-prototyping programme.

Spire Global, Inc. announced a new space-as-a-service agreement with NorthStar Earth & Space, an Earth & Space Information Services Platform, to build a constellation of satellites focused on space-situational awareness (SSA) and debris monitoring. The first award within the contract is for three satellites, with pre-agreed options for NorthStar to scale the constellation to dozens of satellites as their business operational needs grow.

Astranis has now completed all major tests necessary for its first MicroGEO spacecraft to be ready to ship to the launch site, including vibration and vibroacoustic tests, final solar array and antenna deployment tests, propulsion system tests, software tests, and electrical checkouts. This follows a successful thermal-vacuum, or TVAC, test campaign that was concluded late last year.

Following the completion of critical mirror alignment steps, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) team expects that Webb’s optical performance will be able to meet or exceed the science goals the observatory was built to achieve.

Beyond Gravity (formerly RUAG Space, formerly Saab Space AB) said it is significantly ramping up its production of satellite dispensers in Linköping, Sweden, with the construction of a new facility. It will be used to produce dispensers for satellite constellations.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) retired two Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) demonstration satellites on 8 March 2022, ending an experiment that demonstrated that a space layer can significantly enhance the Missile Defense System (MDS).

Terran Orbital Corporation announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc., was awarded a contract by Lockheed Martin to build 42 satellites for the U.S. Space Development Agency’s Tranche 1 Transport Layer, the Initial Warfighting Capability Tranche of the National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA).