Satellite News

SES S.A. announced that its new SES-9 spacecraft is entering commercial service. SES-9 has successfully completed its testing and reached its orbital position at around 108.2 degrees East where it has joined SES-7 and will replace NSS-11.

OneWeb Satellites, a joint venture equally owned by Airbus Defence and Space and OneWeb, has selected the first three top-tier subcontractors. The supply contracts have been signed with MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) from Canada, Sodern from France and Teledyne Defence (a business unit of Teledyne Microwave Solutions) from the United Kingdom.

Aireon LLC, developer of the world’s first space-based global air traffic surveillance service, announced that Harris Corporation finished production on all Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) 1090 Extended Squitter receiver payloads that will enable its global air traffic surveillance service.

China will put into space five new scientific satellites within about five years as part of the country’s space science programme, a national science chief said.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected Tyvak International SRL – an originator of nanosatellite technology – to demonstrate the feasibility of having nanosatellites provide autonomous inspection and support services on the International Space Station (ISS) while in orbit.

Lockheed Martin, Arab Satellite Communications Organization and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) have successfully completed a comprehensive technical review of Arabsat 6A and Hellas-Sat-4/SaudiGeoSat-1, two satellites that will provide television, Internet, telephone and secure communications, to customers in the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

NASA and Bigelow Aerospace today evaluated why the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) attached to the ISS did not fully expand as planned. A new attempt is currently scheduled for Saturday.

Bolivian personnel have taken over the operations of the country’s Chinese-built Tupac Katari satellite.