Satellite News

Space Systems Loral (SSL) has been selected to build a powerful, high throughput communications satellite for Telesat. The new spacecraft, called Telstar 19 VANTAGE, will have two high throughput payloads, one in Ku-band and the other in Ka-band, to serve markets in Latin America, the North Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean and Northern Canada.

NASA has successfully installed the first of 18 flight mirrors onto the James Webb Space Telescope, beginning a critical piece of the observatory’s construction.

Phase Four LLC, a satellite propulsion company, has received a US$1 million contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), in support of the effort to deliver a fully-integrated flight unit of the CubeSat Ambipolar Thruster (“CAT”). The contract also includes options for long-duration orbital flight testing and design enhancements for microsatellite-class missions.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. announced that it has signed a contract amendment for C$3.1 million with the Canadian Space Agency authorising the procurement of long lead items for the new camera systems for the Mobile Servicing System (MSS).

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is developing a network of space-based sensors called FireSat in collaboration with Quadra Pi R2E. FireSat would be a constellation of more than 200 thermal infrared imaging sensors on satellites designed to quickly locate wildfires around the globe. Once operational, FireSat would represent the most complete monitoring coverage of wildfires ever from space.

ESA’s Member States have selected FLEX as the eighth Earth Explorer mission, upon recommendation from the Earth Science Advisory Committee.

Hera Systems has revealed plans to launch the first of the company’s satellites that will capture high-resolution Earth images and video in near-real time.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Astrobotic Technology have signed a memorandum of understanding to partner on exploring concepts for a possible DLR payload to the Moon on Astrobotic’s robotic lunar lander.