Satellite News

Russia plans to expand its Gonets space communications system, which is finally to consist of 36 satellites deployed in low Earth orbit, Roskosmos Vice President Anatoliy Shilov was quoted as saying.

Arianespace has completed the payload integration on its fourth Ariane 5 to be launched in 2009, clearing the way for this vehicle’s lift-off from the Spaceport in French Guiana on 21 August within a one-hour launch window opening at 2209 UTC. The target orbit is 250 km x 35,786 km x 2 degrees at injection.
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Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) has delivered the Nimiq 5 communications satellite built for Telesat to the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where it is scheduled to launch on 18 September aboard an ILS Proton Briz M vehicle provided by International Launch Services (ILS).
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GOES-14, formerly GOES-O, has achieved another significant milestone with the release of the first formal Solar Image from the Solar X-Ray Imager (SXI).
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India and Russia have finished the design of Chandrayaan-2, India’s second unmanned lunar orbiter to be sent to the Moon in 2011-2012.
Other Posts:

Acoustic testing for SBIRS GEO-1 payload completed
New supply vessel launched to ISS
Discovery lands safely after successful mission
Restructuring, part II: SES Global leaves Asiasat
Telesat sale is off, IPO is on — report
Romantis on Intelsat 15
ULA Lofts NRO Satellite Into Orbit In First Launch
Eurockot Launches Korean Satellite

A successful NASA flight test Monday demonstrated how a spacecraft returning to Earth can use an inflatable heat shield to slow and protect itself as it enters the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds.
Other Posts:

Integral Systems to report loss in fiscal third quarter of 2009
Shielding GPS antennas from space radiation
Astrotech Corporation results Q3 FY 2009
Sports and Satellite TV Have Turned Sunday Into a Whole New Ballgame
Dragon receives initial approval from NASA Safety Review Panel
Leoterra, Terrestar Networks Looking To Link Up
Intelsat General Signs 10-year Contract With Milsat Services
Update: TSAT programme partially scrapped

Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) has announced plans for several new satellites.

Germany is debating whether to launch an expensive unmanned mission to the moon as suggested by a member of the current government.
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