Satellite News

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. announced that its SAT Corporation (SAT) subsidiary was awarded a contract to design, manufacture, install, test and deliver a carrier monitoring system (CMS) by NewSat Limited.

Northrop Grumman Corporation said its hemispherical resonator gyro (HRG), which is used for commercial and military space applications, recently achieved 30 million hours of continuous operation without a single mission failure.

Space Systems/Loral (SSL) announced that the Thor 7 satellite, designed and built for Telenor Satellite Broadcasting (TSBc), is ready for launch and will ship to the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana later next week, for launch aboard an Ariane 5 launch vehicle by Arianespace.

Elbit Systems Ltd. announced that it delivered the Venus Space Camera to the French Space Agency, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES). This delivery follows the completion a successful and extensive process of examination of the camera’s ability to withstand harsh space conditions and its performance capabilities.

ISS-Reshetnev Company said it is currently working on a new high-pressure xenon tank intended for the company’s future satellites’ orbit control subsystems.

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), one of five instruments that will fly on-board NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) satellite, has successfully completed its pre-shipment review.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passed a mission milestone of 40,000 orbits on 7 February 2015, in its ninth year of returning information about the atmosphere, surface and subsurface of Mars, from equatorial to polar latitudes.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has decided the schedule for the Venus Climate Orbiter “Akatsuki” to be injected into the Venus orbit in the winter of 2015, as well as its observation plan.