Satellite News

In a recent meeting, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), signed two documents to launch a NASA-ISRO satellite mission to observe Earth and establish a pathway for future joint missions to explore Mars.

The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite mission in is to be launched early 2015 aboard a Falcon 9. The satellite, formerly known as Triana (jokingly) GoreSat after a former U.S. vice president, is to give warnings of solar activity that could potentially wreak havoc throughout society and the economy on Earth.

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission will deploy its lander, Philae, to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 12 November.

Romania might have its own communications satellite, to be launched in a maximum of 3-4 years, Minister for the Information Society Razvan Cotovelea was quoted as saying.

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has successfully demonstrated an innovative method of measuring winds and waves from space, using GNSS Reflectometry. This paves the way for a cost effective satellite system supporting the maritime sector and the organisations that rely on this information and it also offers improvements to weather services and climate research.

ISRO successfully placed its low-cost Mars spacecraft in orbit around the red planet in its very first attempt. The orbit insertion progressed satisfactorily and the spacecraft performance was normal. It is is now circling Mars in an orbit whose nearest point to Mars (periapsis) is at 421.7 km and farthest point (apoapsis) at 76,993.6 km.

COM DEV International Ltd. has been awarded an Authorisation to Proceed (ATP) contract to deliver Multiplexer Equipment, Waveguide and Coaxial Switches, and Microwave Components to be used on a high throughput communications satellite designed to provide direct-to-home premium television content to the Middle East and North Africa.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. has been awarded a contract from DigitalGlobe Inc. to provide a ground station solution to an international customer to receive and process imagery and data directly from DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-1, WorldView-2, and WorldView-3 satellites.