Satellite News

NASA’s newest Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) arrived at KennedySpace Center on 6 December. After being unloaded from a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft, it was unpacked and inspected to ensure it sustained no damage on its flight from the Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems satellite factory in El Segundo.

Following 27 months of successful operation, during which all mission objectives were met, the Space and Missile Systems Center decommissioned the Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload (CHIRP), on 6 December.

DARPA’s Membrane Optical Imager for Real-Time Exploitation (MOIRE) programme aims to create technologies that would enable future high-resolution orbital telescopes to provide real-time video and images of the Earth from Geosynchronous Earth Orbit. Size and cost constraints have so far prevented placing large-scale imaging satellites in GEO, so MOIRE is developing technologies that would make orbital telescopes much lighter, more transportable and more cost-effective.

Thales Alenia Space has signed a contract with the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) for the ground segment of the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) programme.

Scientists and engineers at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center (ATC) have developed the lightest satellite cryocooler ever built.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has completed the primary bus structure of the first satellite in the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1). JPSS-1 is the follow-on in a series of next generation satellites and is scheduled for launch in early 2017.

Lockheed Martin has completed on-orbit testing of the second Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite and handed over spacecraft operations to the U.S. Navy. The handover also includes acceptance of three MUOS ground stations that will relay voice and high-speed data signals for mobile users worldwide.

SiriusXM announced that Sirius FM-6, the newest addition to its satellite fleet, has been successfully placed in orbit and was declared ready for service.