Satellite News

Inmarsat-5 F2 (I-5 F2), the second Global Xpress (GX) satellite, has successfully completed its orbital deployment stages on schedule.

Lockheed Martin said it will integrate customised applications or apps into its ground station solutions to offer more efficiency between operators and missions.

The “green light” has been given for this week’s heavy-lift Ariane 5 mission from the Spaceport in French Guiana, which is to orbit a dual-passenger payload consisting of two telecommunications satellites: Thor 7 and Sicral 2.

Station acquisition manoeuvres for India’s recently launched IRNSS 1D navigation satellite were successfully carried out.

SES Government Solutions (SES GS) announced that it has been awarded a five-year contract by the University of Colorado to host a NASA funded payload on board SES-14.

On 8 April, MESSENGER mission operators at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) successfully conducted a contingency orbit-correction manoeuvre (OCM-15a), to supplement a burn on 6 April (OCM-15) that concluded early when the last drops of hydrazine fuel were expended.

Despite Rosetta’s new trajectory scheme, the orbiter is still able to listen out for its lander Philae, in case it has woken up from hibernation. A new listening window opens on Sunday, 12 April.

With their systems performing well, Europe’s recently launched Galileo navigation satellites have carried out a set of manoeuvres that will take them down to their working positions in orbit.