Satellite News

After a voyage of nearly nine years and 4.8 billion kilometers – the farthest any space mission has ever travelled to reach its primary target – NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft came out of hibernation for its 2015 encounter with the Pluto system.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed the completion of the critical operation phase for the Asteroid Exploration “Hayabusa2″ mission.

Space Systems/Loral (SSL) was selected to provide a multi-mission communications satellite to Spanish satellite operator Hispasat Group. The satellite, Amazonas 5, will be used for a broad range of services in Latin America.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected Airbus Defence and Space as the prime contractor to develop and construct the first Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 satellite. Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 is a mission to carry out high-precision measurements of ocean surface topography.

Airbus Defence and Space said it is creating a “super clock” for the European Space Agency (ESA) that comprises two atomic clocks as well as laser and microwave links to the Earth. The ACES (AtomicClock Ensemble in Space) will run at a precision equal to 1×10-16 a loss of just one second every 300 million years.

Europe’s fifth Galileo satellite, one of two delivered into a wrong orbit by VS09 Soyuz-Fregat launcher in August, has transmitted its first navigation signal in space on 29 November. It has reached its new target orbit and its navigation payload has been successfully switched on.

On 1 December 2014, the Russian Space Communications Company (RSCC) proceeded with deorbiting the DBS Bonum-1 satellite to move it to a graveyard orbit. In 2010 the satellite’s active services ended, and so did the propellant onboard.

Arianespace’s sixth heavy-lift mission of 2014 has been given the go-ahead for Thursday’s lift-off from the Spaceport on a dual-passenger Ariane 5 flight carrying the DirecTV-14 and GSAT-16 satellites.