Satellite News

Testing of the Orion spacecraft’s avionics…Read more

The recently launched U.S. military weather satellite DMSP-19 has failed to completely deploy its solar array. However, the anomaly so far has not affected operations of the spacecraft.

The new large antenna (12.3m x 0.9m) of the environmental satellite Sentinel-1A’s radar instrument, developed by Airbus Defence and Space, has successfully unfolded and locked in place in the early hours of this morning.

NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft is gradually lowering its orbital altitude to continue making science observations prior to its planned impact on the moon’s surface on or before 21 April.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) said its Phoenix has achieved promising Phase 1 results. The agency has awarded eight companies prime contracts for its Phase 2 efforts.

The European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1A satellite, designed and built by Thales Alenia Space, is ready to be launched from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, using a Soyuz-Fregat A launcher.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. and Aerojet Rocketdyne exceeded the technical range objective for the main thruster that will fly aboard the Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM). This mission will demonstrate in a space environment, a “green” propellant known as AF-M315E, to replace the highly toxic hydrazine and complex bi-propellant systems in-use today.

Andrews Space announced that they have successfully completed space qualification of their new 6U solar panel. This qualification effort extends the qualified power systems products for small satellites applications beyond batteries and satellite power management to now include solar panels.