Satellite News

NASA’s Juno mission has successfully executed its first of 36 orbital flybys of Jupiter at an altitude of about 4,200 kilometers above Jupiter’s swirling clouds. At the time, Juno was travelling at 208,000 kilometers per hour with respect to the planet. This flyby was the closest Juno will get to Jupiter during its prime mission.

Intelsat S.A. announced that Intelsat 33e, the second of seven planned Intelsat EpicNG high throughput satellites, was launched successfully from French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Signal acquisition has been confirmed.

Space Systems Loral announced that Intelsat 36 is successfully performing post-launch manoeuvres according to plan.

Boeing said that the Mexsat system was formally accepted by Mexico’s Ministry of Communications and Transportation after successfully completing its final tests.

China has unveiled plans of a Mars probe and rover it aims to launch at the end of the decade. Zhang Rongqiao, chief architect of the project, said Tuesday they were targeting July or August 2020 for the launch, Xinhua news agency reported.

Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded a contract from OHB System AG to supply the space inertial reference system for Germany’s SARah satellite-based radar reconnaissance system.

The U.S. Air Force Space Command’s Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites were recently tasked to support the U.S. Navy’s ongoing Mobile User Objective System-5 anomaly effort after the satellite failed to reach its target geosynchronous orbit.

NASA is preparing to launch its first mission to return a sample of an asteroid to Earth. The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer(OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will travel to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu and bring a sample back to Earth for intensive study.