Satellite News

Lockheed Martin recently delivered a full-sized, functional prototype of the next-generation Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to test facilities and pre-launch processes in advance of the arrival of the first GPS III flight satellite.

Space Systems/Loral (SSL) announced that it has signed a contract with an undisclosed customer to provide a multi-mission satellite to be used for telecommunications, television broadcast, and other services such as distance learning. Further details were not disclosed.

SPOT 6, the high-resolution Earth observation satellite designed, built and operated by Astrium, has now been qualified by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre to take part in the MARS-CAP programme. MARS-CAP is a programme run by the European Commission which involves surveying agricultural land by satellite, as part of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Thales Alenia Space has delivered its second Pressurised Cargo Module (PCM) to Orbital Sciences Corporation for integration in the Cygnus spacecraft that will transport cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).

Lockheed Martin has completed and is preparing to install the navigation, communication, and hosted payload antenna assemblies for the first GPS III satellite.

China’s space probe Chang’e-2 has travelled about 50 million km into space from Earth. The probe, which is “in good conditions,” reached the distance on 13 July (UTC), the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence(SASTIND) said in a statement.

Northrop Grumman Corporation said its patented hemispherical resonator gyro (HRG) technology, which is used for military and commercial space applications, recently achieved a major milestone of 25 million hours of continuous operation without a single mission failure.

The two satellite passengers for Arianespace’s next Ariane 5 mission are being fuelled, preparing them for a 25 July lift-off on the company’s fifth flight in 2013 from French Guiana with its launcher family.