Satellite News

China’s high-definition Earth observation satellite, the Gaofen-1, has been formally put into service, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) announced.

China Great Wall Industry Corporation said that TKSat-1 has arrived at 87.2 degrees West. The satellite was handed over to Bolivia on 27 December.

The launch of Russia’s Spektr-RG satellite has been delayed until 2015 owing to problems with a German-built telescope.

Skybox Imaging announced the release of the world’s first high-resolution, high-definition video of Earth taken by a commercial remote sensing satellite. These videos were taken by SkySat-1, the first of Skybox’s planned constellation of 24 satellites.

The missile warning sensor for the third Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) Geosynchronous Orbiting (GEO) satellite completed final acceptance testing and was shipped to Lockheed Martin Space Systems company (LMSSC) in Sunnyvale, California, for final integration on 18 December 2013.

Saft said the company achieved a milestone when the 100th satellite to use the company’s pioneering Li-ion battery technology launched earlier this month.

NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE), a spacecraft that made the most comprehensive survey to date of asteroids and comets, has returned its first set of test images in preparation for a renewed mission.

Six out of the eight scientific instruments deployed to the moon with the Chang’e-3 lunar mission have been activated by scientists and are functioning properly, according to scientists working on the mission.