Satellite News

As predicted, Polish officials have protested against renaming the European GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) programme “Kopernikus.” [The only surprise is that it took them so long.–Ed.]

SpaceDev, Inc. said it recently completed its third significant milestone under the Space Act Agreement signed with NASA in June 2007; the Internal Space Vehicle Propulsion Module Preliminary Design Review (PDR).

General Dynamics C4 Systems has been awarded a five-year, US$4 million contract by the Hammers Company, Inc., to provide the systems engineering and integration services needed to build the ground-based command and control system for the Mission Operations Element (MOE) of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) satellite.

Mobile Satellite Ventures LP (MSV), ICO Global Communications (Holdings) Limited (ICO) and Qualcomm Incorporated announced an agreement under which Qualcomm will integrate satellite and cellular communication technology in select multi-mode mobile baseband chips.

The U.S. National Space Society said that a “first-of-a-kind” long-range demonstration of solar-powered wireless power transmission was successfully conducted last May.

Engineers from NASA and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne successfully completed a series of hot-fire altitude tests using liquid methane on the RS-18 engine.

Andrews Space, Inc. announced that it has signed a contract with Aerojet to develop aft propulsion system controllers for Bigelow’s Sundancer spacecraft.

NASA issued a Request for Information, or RFI, to gauge interest and solicit ideas from private companies in providing communications and navigation services that would support the development of exploration, scientific and commercial capabilities on the moon over the next 25 years.