Satellite News

Lockheed Martin’s newly upgraded Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) ground system received sign-off from the U.S. Air Force, enhancing the constellation’s ability to deliver infrared data that is critical to early missile warning and defence.

Hispasat 36W-1, the first telecom satellite built using the SmallGEO platform, arrived in Kourou after completing its final tests at IABG in Germany. It will now start being prepared for launch on a Soyuz rocket in January.

Orbital ATK announced it successfully completed its sixth cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station for NASA. Known as OA-5, the mission marked the company’s return to flight operations from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia and the second time Cygnus has been used as a platform for conducting research in space.

ESA’s Science Programme Committee (SPC) confirmed two-year mission extensions for nine scientific missions in which the Agency is participating. This secures their operations until the end of 2018.

Engineering and technology group SENER and Thales Alenia Space have effectively started their pioneering agreement to execute a joint business plan that will lead the Spanish industry in the development of optical payloads for space missions.

The ExoMars orbiter is preparing to make its first scientific observations at Mars during two orbits of the planet starting next week.

Sentinel-2B, Europe’s next Copernicus satellite in Space, has successfully finished its test programme at ESA’s technology Centre ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. The second Sentinel-2 Airbus built satellite will now be readied for shipment to the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana begin January 2017.

Harris Corporation said its new Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) weather instrument and enterprise ground system will be key components of the GOES-R system, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) next-generation weather satellite scheduled to launch on 19 November. GOES-R will provide more detailed, accurate and rapid weather information than what is available from NOAA’s current geostationary weather satellites.