Satellite News

Orbital Sciences Corporation announced that the Intelsat 18 satellite has completed its in-orbit testing and has been handed over to the customer, Intelsat S.A.

NASA has announced that it will extend the MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) mission for an additional year of orbital operations at Mercury beyond the planned end of the primary mission on 17 March 2012. The MESSENGER probe became the first spacecraft to orbit the innermost planet on 18 March 2011.

NASA’s Voyager 2 has successfully switched to the backup set of thrusters that controls the roll of the spacecraft. Deep Space Network personnel sent commands to the spacecraft to make the change on 4 November and received confirmation today that the switch has been made.

SES S.A. announced that the QuetzSat-1 satellite is fully operational and ready for service as of 10 November. QuetzSat-1 was successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on board an ILS Proton Briz M booster on 30 September 2011.
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Globalstar’s next-generation satellite continue to have problems with their momentum wheels, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Upcoming launches of further Globalstar satellites may be delayed.
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Engineers at Northrop Grumman Corporation have confirmed how the James Webb Space Telescope’s five ultra-thin sunshield layers are attached, folded and stowed for launch using the Sunshield Full-Scale Mockup test article. The company is leading the telescope design and development effort for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
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Northrop Grumman Corporation has completed on schedule the preliminary design review (PDR) for its modular space vehicle (MSV), allowing the programme to proceed to its critical design review and closer to manufacturing.
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The unmanned Chinese spacecraft Tiangong 1 and Shenzhou 8 successfully docked for a second time, state-run media reported.
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