Satellite News

Space Systems Loral (SSL) announced that the BulgariaSat-1 satellite, designed and built for Bulgaria Sat, an affiliate of Bulsatcom, which is a leading telecommunications company and the largest provider of pay-TV services in Bulgaria, has arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where it will be launched aboard a re-used Falcon 9.

After the CanX-7 nanosatellite deployed its drag sails only a week ago, early results indicate the sails are having a noticeable effect. Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, which developed CanX-7, has announced the altitude decay rate changed significantly following the deployment in the late evening of 4 May 2017 (Toronto time).

A team of NASA scientists and engineers recently won NASA funding to build the Plasma Enhancements in The Ionosphere-Thermosphere Satellite. The mission, also known as petitSat, is a precursor to a possible Explorer-class mission and leverages several R and D-supported technologies, including the satellite bus itself.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. announced that its Quebec subsidiary has signed a Letter of Intent with the Government of Quebec to establish a Satellite Centre of Excellence in Montreal.

OTIS (Optical Telescope Element and Integrated Science), the payload module hosting the telescope and the instruments for the giant James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), has been shipped by NASA to the Johnson Space Centre (JSC) in Houston, Texas.

After collecting over 4.3 million Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) messages from aircraft since it launched in September 2016, the 3.5 kilogram 10 cm x 10 cm x 34 cm CanX-7 nanosatellite deployed its four drag sails. CanX-7 was built by Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS).

When spacecraft and satellites travel through space they encounter tiny, fast moving particles of space dust and debris. If the particle travels fast enough, its impact appears to create electromagnetic radiation that can damage or even disable the craft’s electronic systems.

Thales Alenia Space announced two milestones in the Solar Orbiter mission to investigate the Sun and the heliosphere. It has completed construction of the heat shield on behalf of Airbus Defence and Space for the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft, and delivered to the Italian space agency ASI the scientific instrument METIS (Multi-Element Telescope for Imaging and Spectroscopy).