Satellite News

Boeing narrowly missed a “catastrophic failure” during its December flight test of the CST-100 Starliner that was cut short by an unrelated problem, a NASA safety review panel said. It recommended that the agency examine Boeing’s software verification process before letting it fly humans to space.

AT&T Inc.’s DirecTV unit said there is “a significant risk” that battery cells aboard its Spaceway-1 satellite could burst. DirecTV received permission to conduct an emergency operation to reduce risks of an accidental explosion.

On 24 October 2019, Eutelsat announced an investigation into a malfunction on one of the two solar arrays on its Eutelsat 5 West B satellite. Pursuant to this investigation, the loss of the satellite’s South solar array has been confirmed. With the exception of the South solar array, the satellite performance remains nominal.

NASA is opening an independent investigation with Boeing over a software glitch that prevented its Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner vessel from reaching the International Space Station in December, the agency said.

China Satcom has filed an insurance claim over the ChinaSat-18 communications satellite after it failed to communicate with the satellite, which is now considered a total loss.

The Independent Inquiry Commission, tasked with analysing the failure of Vega Flight VV15, submitted its findings on Wednesday, 4 September 2019. co-chaired by the Inspector General of the European Space Agency (ESA); and the Senior Vice President, Technical and Quality of Arianespace; the Commission was appointed on Thursday, 11 July 2019. According to its assigned task, after having analysed the flight data, the Commission identified possible causes for the anomaly and drew up recommendations for Vega to resume launches under the requisite conditions of safety, security and reliability.

An Iranian rocket exploded on its launch pad at Imam Khomeini Space Center in northern Iran before its scheduled launch on 29 August 2019, an Iranian official said.

As the second ExoMars mission, comprising a rover and surface science platform, progresses towards launch next year, teams continue to troubleshoot the parachute design following an unsuccessful high-altitude drop test last week, ESA said.