Satellite News

NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft unfurled its robotic arm on 20 October 2020 and briefly touched an asteroid to collect dust and pebbles from the surface for delivery to Earth in 2023.

Telesat U.S. Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Telesat, is now part of the Lockheed Martin team which was recently awarded the Space Transport Layer Tranche 0 contract by the U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA).

New Russian private space company Success Rockets is planning to create three satellite constellations, one of them comprising over 500 satellites, according to the company.

Spire Global announced its first dedicated Lemur satellite, named Djara, developed for Australia’s Office of National Intelligence (ONI).

mPower Technology announced that its DragonSCALES solar cell prototype has completed integration and testing on a Sparkwing in-orbit solar array technology demonstrator in preparation for inclusion on Momentus’ Vigoride transfer vehicle launch taking place in the fourth quarter of 2020.

The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission has completed the first of two Venus flybys needed to set it on course with the Solar System’s innermost planet, Mercury. The closest approach of the flyby took place at 0358 UTC on 15 October at a distance of about 10,720 km from the planet’s surface.

Airbus has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) as prime contractor for the Mars Sample Return’s Earth Return Orbiter (ERO) – the first ever spacecraft to bring samples back to Earth from Mars.

Airbus and Thales Alenia Space have been selected by the European Space Agency to compete in the definition phase of the European Large Logistic Lander (EL3) moon lander.