Satellite News

The fifth and final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, STS-125, is now officially off until February 2009 — at least.

The Hubble Space Telescope has stopped sending science data, forcing NASA to delay the STS-125 space shuttle mission planned in just two weeks to upgrade the telescope.

The W5 satellite operated by Eutelsat Communications has lost one of its two solar arrays and consequently 50 percent of its power supply, manufacturer Thales Alenia Space confirmed. All high-power DTH transmissions have been shut down.

An ATK-built prototype sounding rocket, designed to evaluate low-cost launch system technologies, had to be destroyed shortly after lift-off as it veered off course.

EchoStar said it has collected US$41 million of insurance proceeds related to the total loss of SES Americom’s AMC-14.

SpaceX has confirmed that, contrary to initial statements, the stages of its third Falcon 1 rocket did separate but then bumped into each other, resulting in mission failure.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the company would soon release details on the initial investigation into the Falcon 1 launch failure on 3 July (UTC). Unlike with the first two launch failures, this time there have been some voices critical of SpaceX.

SES said several of its Lockheed-Martin built satellites have experienced varying degrees of power loss in some of their solar array circuits.