Satellite News

Astrium has been awarded a study contract by the French space agency CNES. The study will analyse existing concepts and technologies and determine which can be used to successfully tackle large items of space debris, such as launcher stages and end of life satellites.

ESA’s Proba 3 project aims to demonstrate that two satellites can move as one single object with sub-millimetre precision. This configuration will enable the creation of enormous space telescopes with the lens and detector hundreds of metres apart.

This summer, Lockheed Martin-developed GPS satellites already in orbit will participate in testing of a new modernised civilian navigation message (CNAV) capability which will further enhance GPS navigation service to global users.

An infrared sensor that could improve NASA’s future detecting and tracking of asteroids and comets has passed a critical design test.

The ISS Progress M-17M [Progress 49P] resupply ship departed the International Space Station on 15 April, clearing the way for the arrival of the next Russian space freighter.

NASA has selected a new satellite mission and a new space-based instrument to begin development as part of the agency’s Heliophysics Explorer Program. The projects will provide space observations to study Earth’s ionosphere and thermosphere.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has been selected by the U.S. Air Force to perform risk reduction work on the next generation of microwave sounding and imaging instruments for the Weather Satellite Follow-on programme.

ESA’s retired GIOVE-A navigation mission has become the first civilian satellite to perform GPS position fixes from high orbit. Its results demonstrate that current satnav signals could guide missions much further away in space, up to geostationary orbit or even as far as the Moon.