Satellite News

Russia’s Kosmos-2491 military satellite may has disintegrated in space, either by accident or after deliberately self-destructing, Harvard-Smithsonian astronomer Jonathan McDowell believes.

Ball Aerospace and General Dynamics Mission Systems have agreed to collaborate with Telesat in separate demonstrations that will highlight how high-performing commercial satellite systems, such as Telesat LEO, can provide important advantages for the U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center’s Commercially Augmented Space Inter Networked Operations (CASINO) programme.

OneWeb and SatixFy UK announced plans to add a digital technology pathway payload that will include a full digital payload into OneWeb’s launch schedule during 2021.

Chinese space engineers have tested a micro propulsion technology on a recently launched satellite, which could be used in future space-based gravitational wave detection.

China’s heaviest and most advanced satellite, Shijian-20, has reached its fixed position in geosynchronous orbit, marking the first successful flight of DFH-5 satellite platform, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said they were last able to communicate with their ASTERIA cubesat, designed to search for planets outside the solar system, on 5 December.

State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) said on Thursday it signed with the Israeli government to build the country’s next communication satellite.

The Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA) announced that China’s first solar sail, SIASAIL-I (aka Xiaoxiang 1-07 and TY 1-07), has successfully verified a number of key technologies in orbit, a big breakthrough in China’s solar sail development.