Satellite News

The Swedish National Space Board (SNSB) and NASA have signed a bilateral co-operative agreement for NASA to test and evaluate the 5-Newton and 22-Newton High Performance Green Propulsion (HPGP) thrusters developed by ECAPS, an SSC Group company.

NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM) has been selected to test an advanced form of thermal insulation, called integrated multi-layer insulation (IMLI) that could become standard on future satellites and cryogenic subsystems.

Space Systems/Loral (SSL) announced that the Sirius FM-6 satellite, designed and built for Sirius XM Radio, is performing post-launch manoeuvres according to plan.

ESA said that the Expedition 37 crew on board the ISS said goodbye to ATV Albert Einstein on 28 October 2013, with separation taking place at 0855 UTC.

Astrium has completed the radar instrument for the Sentinel-1A environmental satellite and will deliver it to Thales Alenia Space (TAS) in Rome for installation on the satellite.

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission (MAVEN) spacecraft is undergoing final preparations for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida,which is currently scheduled for 18 November,1828 UTC.

Astrium has been awarded a contract by U.S. company DirecTV Latin America to build the latest addition to its communications satellite fleet. The satellite will be based on Astrium’s Eurostar E3000 platform and will be placed in orbit at the start of 2016.

Astrium has delivered the proto-flight model (PFM) of the microwave radiometer (MWR) – an instrument for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Sentinel-3A environmental monitoring satellite – to the prime contractor Thales Alenia Space for installation on the Sentinel-3A satellite.