Satellite News

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has completed the delivery of the payloads for the first four Full Operational Capability (FOC) satellites of the European Galileo GNSS system to prime contractor OHB System AG.

Northrop Grumman Corporation has delivered the second of two payloads that will be hosted on U.S. government-owned satellites to bring next-generation protected, Extremely High Frequency (EHF) communications to users in the north polar region (above 65 degrees North latitude).

Astrium has been awarded the Payload Module contract for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) future astronomy mission Euclid, due for launch in 2020.

NOAA has officially returned the GOES-13 spacecraft to normal operations, after tests showed a micrometeoroid, likely hit the arm for the solar array panel on 22 May knocking the spacecraft off its geostationary balance.

NASA’s Orion crew module successfully passed its static loads tests. To ensure Orion will be ready for its flight test next year, engineers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida built a 6-m-tall static loads test fixture for the crew module with hydraulic cylinders that slowly push or pull on the vehicle, depending on the type of load being simulated.

A Lockheed Martin-led industry team has completed successful functional integration tests of the spacecraft bus and network communications equipment on the first satellite of the next generation Global Positioning System, known as GPS III.

Academician M.F. Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems has approached to and already begun one of the most important stages in the manufacture of the Ekspress-AT2 telecommunications spacecraft – integration of its platform and payload module.

ATK has been awarded a contract to support the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements (SeeMe) programme.