Satellite News

Thales Alenia Space has signed a contract with ESA for the development and deployment of the ground-based Galileo Mission Segment (GMS) and the Galileo Security Facility (GSF). This contract, amounting EUR281 million, will cover almost four years of activity including maintenance. Separately, Astrium has been selected by as prime contractor for the Galileo Full Operational Capability Ground Control Segment. The contract value is EUR73.5 million. In addition, European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani said there was now sufficient money left to order six additional Galileo satellites.
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Aerojet, QinetiQ and EADS Astrium Crisa announced that the companies have entered into a joint agreement to supply the XENITH (Xenon Ion Thruster) ion propulsion system to the commercial spacecraft market.
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The first six of 18 segments that will form NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s primary mirror for space observations completed final cryogenic testing this week.
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Thales Alenia Space announced the official start of the Ekspress AM8, AT1 and AT2 programmes. The tri-partite contract was signed in September 2010 with Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) and JSC ISS – Reshetnev Company and the global financing is now completed. Thales Alenia Space also announced a contract to supply the communications payload for the KazSat 3 communications satellite, which was ordered by Kazakhstan’s National Center of Space Communications (RTSKS) from ISS-Reshetnev.
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Europe’s unmanned ATV space freighter plunged on command into Earth’s atmosphere over the southern Pacific Ocean. Contact with the spacecraft was lost at 2041 UTC at an altitude of 80 km.
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ESA and Thales Alenia Space Italia announced an agreement to begin building the IXV Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle for its mission into space in 2013.
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The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has chosen Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) as a provider of the wireless communications platform for the System F6 programme.
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Goodrich Corporation, the prime contractor for the ORS-1 (Operationally Responsive Space) satellite, said it has successfully completed all of the major programme milestones and the spacecraft has been delivered to NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) in Virginia, for launch aboard a Minotaur 1 on 29 June (0028 UTC).
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