Satellite News

After three days of completing Earth-commanded activities without incident last week, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit had a bout of temporary amnesia on 17 April and rebooted its computer on 18 April, behaviour similar to events about a week earlier.
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Cats hiding (and involuntarily travelling) in unusual places such as cars’ motor compartments have not been unheard of – but squeezed under the satellite dish of a news truck?
Other Posts:New equipment ready for Globalstar Simplex ServiceOrbital orders more Orion motors from ATKAstrium delivers Nimiq 4 in orbitNew MCPC platform on AsiaSat 3SATK awarded contract for Orion launch abort motorsATK completes another shuttle motor testCOMS launch planned for 2008Daichi uses backup system for transmissions to relay satellite

According to Brazilian news reports, more than three dozen satellite pirates were busted today by the country’s authorities. These are not pay-TV pirates as you may suspect. Instead, they have been using U.S. military satellites… to chat.

The collision between Kosmos 2251 and Iridium 33 has (as could be expected) proven as a fertile ground for conspiracy theories – both in Russia and in the U.S. — Warning: the following is a bit lengthy, slightly off topic, and contains outright nonsense.
Other Posts:

SkyPort Launches Best-In-Class Partners Program and Attracts Top-Tier Providers
Shin to launch IPSTAR service in India at year-end
Update: Dnepr crashes after lift-off
NASA says Ares 1 has sufficient power
Comtech to buy Radyne
New MCPC platform on AsiaSat 3S
Nigcomsat-1 Attains Fixed Orbit
Orbital Sciences Reports Second Quarter Growth

Other Posts:DirecTV Signs Deal To Boost Broadband ProspectsFCC grants milestone extension to ICOEU Parliament ‘concerned’ about GalileoChutzpah in spaceVirgin America To Offer Dish Network In Every SeatReport: WiMAX has more opportunities than threats for satelliteTacSat 2 cleared for launchATK’s EO-1 satellite far exceeds design and mission life

NASA has awarded Aurora Flight Sciences, and its partner Vertigo Inc., a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I contract to develop an autonomous balloon launcher to operate from the surface of Mars.

After a two-year, top to bottom renovation, the High Bay Facility of the Operations & Checkout (O&C) Building at NASA’S Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is now ready to begin preparations to build the new Orion crew exploration vehicle.

Spirent Communications plc announced the world’s first RF constellation simulator that supports the Japanese Quasi Zenith Satellite System (QZSS). Spirent GSS800 now supports QZSS system in addition to GPS, GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and SBAS.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s black labrador dog, Koni, was given a collar that will allow her master to track her movements using the GLONASS navigation system – maybe some time next year, that is. Even though the satellite constellation is far from being complete, things are looking increasingly good.