Satellite News

China’s third crewed space mission was successfully completed when the Shenzhou 7 return module landed in the Mongolian desert on 28 September, o938 UTC. Meanwhile there is some speculation regarding the mission’s orbital module and a sub-satellite left in orbit.

JSC ISS – Reshetnev Company (formerly known as NPO-PM) has signed a contract with SAFT, France, for the delivery of Li-ion batteries.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. announced that is has signed a C$4 million contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to provide the data and information processing solution for ESA’s next Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite Sentinel-1, expected to launch in 2011.

COM DEV USA, LLC, a subsidiary of COM DEV International Ltd. , announced that it has been awarded a US$1.6 million Authorisation to Proceed (ATP) to supply passive microwave components for a U.S. Government civil space programme.

NASA said its planet-hunting Kepler satellite, scheduled to launch in 2009, has survived an extreme temperature test.

Raytheon Company said it achieved a significant programme milestone for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) by successfully completing ground segment acceptance testing of the data processing segment at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility three weeks ahead of schedule.

The Sea Launch team has initiated a 72-hour countdown at the equatorial launch site, in preparation for the launch of Intelsat’s Galaxy 19 satellite on 24 September. Lift-off is planned at 0928 UTC at the opening of a two-hour launch window.

NASA selected software engineering provider The Hammers Company to build the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) Mission Operations Element (MOE).