Satellite News

The eighth Boeing Global Positioning System IIF satellite has completed on-orbit checkout and joined the active 31-satellite constellation.

DigitalGlobe, Inc. reported that, as a result of its annual satellite life review, it will extend the useful lives of two of its satellites: WorldView-1 and WorldView-2. The company has also assigned an initial useful life to its newest satellite, WorldView-3 that is slightly longer than the original use lives assigned to WorldView-1 and WorldView-2.

The first six satellites of the Orbcomm Generation Two (OG2) constellation, designed and built by Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Space Systems, have completed all on-orbit checkout procedures, culminating in the transfer of operations from SNC to Orbcomm in mid-September.

The Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument that will fly on the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 spacecraft (JPSS-1), NOAA’s next polar orbiting environmental satellite, has been successfully integrated with the spacecraft.

Raytheon Company and Lockheed Martin successfully completed the fourth of five planned launch and early orbit exercises to demonstrate new automation capabilities, information assurance and launch readiness of the U.S. Air Force’s next generation GPS III satellite and Operational Control System (OCX).

ESA’s Venus Express has ended its eight-year mission after far exceeding its planned life. The spacecraft exhausted its propellant during a series of thruster burns to raise its orbit following the low-altitude aerobraking earlier this year.

A Proton M/Briz M is to launch the Yamal-401 communications satellite for Gazprom Space Systems at 0016 UTC on 15 December from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. It will be the 400th launch of a Proton.

Boeing and NASA recently completed the Ground Segment Critical Design Review and set the baseline design for the company’s Commercial Crew Transportation System, moving a step closer to the planned early 2017 voyage to the International Space Station.