Satellite News

A camera suite that will allow NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission to see a near-Earth asteroid, map it, and pick a safe and interesting place to touch the surface and collect a sample, has arrived at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver for installation to the spacecraft.

Lockheed Martin said company scientists are packing three times the power density into a key satellite cooling system whose previous design is already the lightest in its class. This project continues the company’s effort to reduce component size, enabling compact, higher-power spacecraft payloads and smaller sensor platforms back on Earth.

Orbital ATK, Inc. announced that it recently signed a contract with Lockheed Martin to produce propellant and pressurant tanks for Lockheed Martin’s updated A2100 satellite platform. The five-year contract continues a 20-year relationship between Orbital ATK and Lockheed Martin for satellite fuel tanks produced by the company’s Space Systems Group in Commerce, California.

PlanetiQ announced the opening of its new science and engineering facility in Boulder, Colorado. The facility includes a laboratory clean room where PlanetiQ will complete the development and manufacture of its first 12 Pyxis-RO flight instruments for the world’s first commercial satellite constellation exclusively focused on weather, climate and space weather.

GSLV-D6 is the ninth flight of India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). It is also the fifth developmental flight of GSLV. This is the third time the indigenously developed Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) is being carried on-board during a GSLV flight.

Aerojet Rocketdyne has completed delivery of a green propellant propulsion subsystem that will be used to test a non-toxic fuel on NASA’s future spacecraft, the Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM).

Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Space Systems said it continues to expand its Space Technologies product line, by growing its capability in solar array design, production and verification.

Arianespace’s fourth flight of its heavy-lift Ariane 5 this year is a “go” for lift-off on Thursday, 20 August following a launch readiness review at the Spaceport in French Guiana. Lift-off is planned as soon as possible within the 2010 – 2156 UTC launch window. The targeted orbit is 252 km x 35,845 km x 4.7 degrees.