Satellite News

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. announced that it has signed a contract in excess of C$20 million with Thales Alenia Space, prime contractor for the O3b constellation, to provide 96 communication antenna subsystems.

A British consortium led by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has been awarded a grant from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, to co-fund the development of a novel High Test Peroxide (HTP) propulsion system.

Rosetta’s lander Philae has remained silent since 9 July 2015. With every passing day, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is getting further and further away from the Sun, and as such, temperatures are falling on the comet’s surface. Things are getting critical for Philae: conditions are predicted to be “lander-hostile” – too cold – by the end of January.

The Government of Canada has announced a new vision system to support the inspection and maintenance of the International Space Station.

Dubai-based Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) has completed the Critical Design Review for the KhalifaSat Engineering Model (EM) as well as the the satellite’s flight software.

Western sanctions will not affect the Russian Arktika satellite project because the design of satellites is originally based on domestic technologies, according to Sergei Lemeshevsky of the Lavochkin Research and Production Association.

The multifunctional personal communications system Gonets-D1M, based on LEO satellites designed and built by ISS-Reshetnev, has successfully completed in-orbit flight tests.

Finmeccanica-Telespazio has been awarded a contract by the European Space Agency (ESA) with a duration extending until 2020, to support the operations and the corrective and evolving maintenance of the Sentinel-1 mission’s ground segment as part of the Copernicus programme, the European Earth Observation Programme.