Satellite News

NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft, designed to image global interactions at the outer reaches of the solar system, today began its move to Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB).

COM DEV International Ltd. has been awarded a C$12.3 million dollar contract by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) to deliver the payload for Project SAPPHIRE, the first dedicated space mission for Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND).

Chile will reportedly purchase an Earth observing satellite from EADS Astrium.

Alliant Techsystems said that the constellation of five micro satellites it built for NASA’s THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) mission has successfully demonstrated how satellites can work together to collect data.

Kayser-Threde GmbH received the prime contract for the space and ground segment as well as launch services for the satellite mission TET-1 from the Space Agency of the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

Launching in just two months’ time, GOCE – now fully reconfigured for launch in September, is currently being prepared for shipment on 29 July 2008 from ESA’s test facilities in the Netherlands to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.

The Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT) Space Segment team has completed a successful demonstration of its new-generation High Power Hall Current Thruster (HPHCT) electric propulsion system designed for use on the U.S. Air Force’s TSAT constellation.

Measat Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd’s new satellite, Measat-3A, has arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to be readied for launch on 21 August.