Satellite News

Eutelsat Communications and Arianespace announced the signature of a long-term multiple launch services agreement which guarantees launch capacity and flexibility to Eutelsat for its expansion programme.

Teledyne Technologies Incorporate announced that its subsidiary, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc., in Huntsville, Alabama, has been awarded a five year prime contract with a potential total value of US$120.1 million to continue providing dedicated payload operations and integration support for the International Space Station (ISS) and other Marshall Space Flight Center managed missions.

Rocket: Ariane 5 ECA; Payload: Amazonas-3, Azerspace/Africasat-1a; Date: 7 February 2013, 2136 UTC; Launch site: Kourou, French Guiana. Ariane 5 deployed its passengers on a successful mission lasting just under 37 minutes.

Rocket: Soyuz/Fregat; Payload: six Globalstar satellites; Date: 6 February 2013, 1604 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Arianespace, Starsem and their Russian partners confirmed that the Fregat orbital stage accurately injected the six Globalstar-2 satellites into their targeted orbit.

DigitalGlobe said that it plans to complete WorldView-3 on its original schedule to be ready for launch in mid-2014 in order to meet the requirements of its EnhancedView contract with the U.S. government. The launch of GeoEye-2, previously scheduled for 2013, has been popstponed indefinitely.

A Soyuz was rolled out to perform the final Arianespace/Starsem mission currently contracted by Globalstar for its second-generation satellite constellation, which provides mobile satellite voice and data services.

The first stage of Vega VV02 has been successfully transferred to its launch pad at the European Spaceport in French Guiana.

Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems said it is successfully implementing the programme to support the GLONASS navigation satellites constellation.