Satellite News

A report by Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post supports claims of a human rights group that China’s recently launched SinoSat 2 (Xinnuo 2) has failed and is likely a complete loss.

Optus reportedly is in discussions with Orbital Sciences, the company that built and — apparently wrongly configured — the recently launched Optus D1 satellite.

NASA’s said that its Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) is likely lost, but efforts to regain contact with the spacecraft and determine what has happened to it will continue. Yesterday’s attempt to take an image of the silent spacecraft using a high-resolution camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has apparently failed.

Russia has agreed to pay US$1.1 million (EUR865,000) in compensation for the damage caused by the crash of a Dnepr rocket in Kazakhstan last July.

Twelve of Turksat 2A’s 34 transponders have failed because of technical defects such as overheating, Turkish newspaper Zaman Daily reports.

The recently launched Russian Progress M-58 cargo spacecraft has failed to dock properly with the International Space Station owing to a mechanical glitch.

Intelsat announced that its PAS-6B satellite experienced an anomaly during a routine, scheduled manoeuvre on 26 October [possibly 25 October UTC — the company didn’t give an exact time.]

The Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) that is to fly aboard the U.S. National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite has been damaged during testing, officials confirmed.