Satellite News

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has shipped the STPSat-2 satellite built for the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Space Development and Test Wing (SDTW) to Alaska’s Kodiak Launch Complex for scheduled lift-off aboard a Minotaur 4 rocket for an autumn 2010 launch.

Astrium has signed a contract worth EUR55.2 million with the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) for the development, manufacture and launch of an Earth observation optical satellite system.

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have embarked on a joint programme to explore Mars in the coming decades and selected the five science instruments for the first mission.

Information Satellite Systems Reshetnev has been supplied with a Thales Alenia Space altimeter, SADKO-2, for its new geodetic spacecraft GEO-IK-2 No. 12.

Boeing announced that the third Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) military communications satellite has entered service for the U.S. Air Force.

The U.S. Air Force’s 3rd Space Operations Squadron, along with Lockheed Martin and The Aerospace Corporation, successfully demonstrated the capability to correct a wayward satellite using the spacecraft’s reaction wheels recently.

The U.S. Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center’s Space Based Infrared Systems programme office successfully completed a major system level test of the interfaces between all SBIRS ground facilities and the GEO-1 satellite.

NASA said that mission controllers have not heard from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit since 22 March, and the rover is facing its toughest challenge yet — trying to survive the harsh Martian winter.