Satellite News

Lockheed Martin, under a contract from the University of Arizona, has completed assembly and testing of the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and has shipped the instrument to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. NIRCam is the prime near-infrared imaging instrument for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

On 18 July NASA’s Kepler team initiated exploratory recovery tests on the spacecraft’s two failed wheels. The recovery tests are a series of steps to characterise the performance of Reaction Wheels (RW) 4 and 2, and to determine if either could be returned to operation.

Skycorp Incorporated (again) introduced the Spacecraft Life Extension System (SLES), which is to extend the useful lifetime of Geostationary (GEO) satellites.

Astrium recently signed a contract with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), the South Korean space agency. Under the terms of this contract, Astrium and KARI will jointly design and manufacture the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager II (GOCI-II) for the future Korean mission GEO-KOMPSAT 2B, scheduled for launch in 2019.

ISS-Reshetnev has completed the first stage of work in the territory of Kazakhstan involving the installation of control hardware and software intended for the KazSat-3 telecommunications satellite.

Space Systems/Loral (SSL) announced that it has been selected to provide a communications satellite to Intelsat S.A. With expansive coverage of the Western hemisphere, Intelsat 34 is the 50th satellite SSL will provide to Intelsat.

Arianespace will orbit two satellites on its third Ariane 5 launch of the year: the Alphasat mobile communications satellite for operator Inmarsat, and the INSAT-3D meteorological satellite for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Lift-off is scheduled for 25 July 2013 between 1953 and 2111 UTC. The targeted orbit is 248 km x 35,945 km x 3,5 degrees.

Academician M.F. Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems said it has begun integration of the Yamal-401 spacecraft.