Satellite News

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), completing its fourth year at the Red Planet next week, has just passed a data-volume milestone unimaginable a generation ago and still difficult to fathom: 100 terabits.

Boeing announced that the U.S. Air Force accepted control of the third Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) military communications satellite on 1 March, after the spacecraft passed several weeks of on-orbit tests.
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Mini- thrusters or miniature, electric propulsion systems are being developed, which could make it easier for the U.S. Air Force’s small satellites, including the latest CubeSats, to perform space manoeuvres and undertake tasks like searching for planets beyond our solar system.
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GS Yuasa Lithium Power (GYLP) announced it has been awarded a contract to supply batteries for Orbital Sciences Corporation’s (Orbital) Cygnus manoeuvring space vehicle. Cygnus will be used to provide cargo delivery services to the International Space Station.
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The James Webb Space Telescope reached a mission-readiness landmark when its first primary mirror segment was cryo-polished to its required prescription as measured at operational cryogenic temperatures.
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COM DEV International Ltd. has been awarded a contract valued in excess of US$6 million to provide switches, filters and multiplexers for a commercial communications satellite.
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Two GLONASS-M satellites have been withdrawn from the Russian satellite navigation system, Roskosmos announced.
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ESA’s Mars Express will skim the surface of Mars’ largest moon Phobos on 3 March. Passing by at an altitude of 67 km, precise radio tracking will allow researchers to peer inside the moon.
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