Satellite News

Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio have reached an agreement with Teledife (General Directorate of IT and Advanced Technologies, Italian Ministry of Defence) to supply the ground segment to the Polish Ministry of Defense for the reception and processing of data and data products generated by Italy’s first and second-generation COSMO-SkyMed satellites.

ISRO said it had successfully deployed the large antenna of its military communication satellite GSAT-6 and also raised its orbit.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said it decided to complete the scientific mission of the X-ray Astronomy Satellite “Suzaku” (ASTRO-EII) after carefully considering the condition of the satellite.

Azerbaijan has decided on the company that will build the second telecommunications satellite, Azerspace-2, according to the country’s Minister of Communications and High Technologies, Ali Abbasov.

Space Systems/Loral announced it was awarded a contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to study on-orbit robotic assembly of geostationary communications satellites. Called Dragonfly, the programme is designed to enable larger and more powerful satellites that cannot be launched fully assembled, to be packaged in pieces within a standard launch vehicle fairing.

Northrop Grumman Corporation delivered on schedule the telescope structure for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on 24 August. This paves the way for the integration of the 18 hexagonal mirrors that will help scientists observe the formation of the first stars and galaxies over 13.5 billion years ago.

Two Russian space companies and Iranian firm Bonyan Danesh Shargh have signed an agreement on joint development of an Earth remote-sensing satellite system for Iran, Russia’s Federal Space Agency Roskosmos said.

A Proton M/Briz M launch vehicle, utilising a five-burn Briz M supersynchronous transfer orbit mission design, will lift off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, with the Inmarsat-5 F3 satellite on board, on 28 August 2015, 1144 UTC.