Satellite News

Arianespace will boost two direct TV broadcast satellites into orbit on its fourth launch of the year: ProtoStar I for U.S. operator ProtoStar Ltd. and Badr 6 for Middle-East operator Arabsat — although with a three-day delay.

Boeing said has completed environmental tests of the first of 12 Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF satellites, which confirm the mechanical integrity of the spacecraft. The programme is on track to deliver the first satellite to the U.S. Air Force this year.

The European Commission today launched the process to award contracts connected to the operation of its Galileo satellite navigation system, with the first contracts to be let by mid-2009 to allow for deployment of the system by 2013.

The European Space Agency ESA has transferred all activities involved in the operation and exploitation of the European share of the International Space Station to Astrium as prime industrial contractor.

Lockheed Martin said the first Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) military communications satellite is now undergoing thermal vacuum testing at the company’s Sunnyvale, California/USA facilities.

TerreStar Corporation and its majority-owned subsidiary TerreStar Networks Inc. announced that the launch of its satellite TerreStar-1 (TS-1) will be delayed up to six months after a reflector was damaged during manufacturing.

The United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne a US$2.2 million contract for the fabrication and ground test of a Solar Thermal Propulsion rocket engine.

Canada is building the world’s first space telescope designed to detect and track asteroids as well as satellites. Called NEOSSat (Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite), this spacecraft will provide a significant improvement in surveillance of asteroids that pose a collision hazard with Earth, and technologies for tracking satellites in orbit.