Satellite News

The European spacecraft BepiColombo is currently undergoing final testing in launch configuration, prior to being shipped to the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana next March for a scheduled October 2018 launch.

Aerojet Rocketdyne, Inc. successfully conducted a series of hot-fire tests on a Power Processing Unit (PPU) for an Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS). The tests were conducted at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Investigators have uncovered the problems behind the failure of atomic clocks onboard satellites belonging to the beleaguered Galileo satnav system, the European Commission said.

OneWeb Satellites has inaugurated its assembly line in Toulouse to begin end-to-end validation, testing, and integration of its first satellites set for launch in just over nine months.

Northrop Grumman Corporation said reached another major milestone for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope with the delivery of the mid-boom assemblies. The graphite-epoxy assemblies were designed, built, and tested by Astro Aerospace, a Northrop Grumman business.

D-Sat, the first nanosatellite with the ability to remove itself from orbit in a direct and controlled way through a dedicated device at the end of its mission, was successfully launched on 23 June 2017, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India atop a PSLV rocket.

Arianespace’s fourth heavy-lift Ariane 5 to take flight in 2017 is “go” for its lift-off from the Spaceport in French Guiana on 28 June between 2059 and 2216 UTC.

Lockheed Martin said the company’s second GPS III satellite, and the third satellite is close behind, having just received its navigation payload.