Satellite News

Magellan Aerospace has delivered the first of three Power Control Units (“PCU”) for an upcoming space mission.

The Angosat spacecraft made at RSC Energia under a contract with the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Angola is undergoing scheduled flight tests, the manufacturer said.

Thales Alenia Space has signed a new contract with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, KARI, to deliver the X-band communications system for the KOMPSAT-7 mission (Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite 7), with a target launch in 2021 and a lifetime of five years.

SES announced that the new SES-15 spacecraft has been operational at the 129 degrees West orbital position since 1 January. As planned, the all-electric satellite took six months to reach its orbital position and to successfully complete its testing.

On 11 January 2018, CGWIC and Royal Group of Cambodia signed a Framework Agreement of TECHO 1 Communications Satellite Project. As a prime contractor of the project, CGWIC will deliver a communications satellite to Cambodian user in the form of satellite In Orbit Delivery.

Viasat Inc. has begun beta service on the ViaSat-2 satellite, and affirmed plans for full commercial service launch in February 2018 even though an in-orbit antenna issue has been detected.

Orbital ATK has been awarded a contract by Intelsat to build the Galaxy 30 communications satellite. The satellite will be based on Orbital ATK’s GEOStar-2 satellite platform.

With the emergence of the next-generation GOES-16 as the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s new GOES-East satellite, GOES-13, which held the position since April 2010, was powered down on 8 January 2018. It can be reactivated if one of NOAA’s other operational or backup satellites experiences trouble.