Satellite News

China will launch its first next-generation polar orbiting weather satellite in May, Xinhua news agency reported.

NASA’s Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, has arrived at the Astrotech payload processing facility near the Kennedy Space Center to begin final preparations for launch.

Northrop Grumman Corporation has delivered the payload module for the second Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) military communications satellite ahead of schedule to Lockheed Martin, prime contractor for the AEHF programme.

For its first mission of the year, Arianespace will launch the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), dubbed “Jules Verne,” for the European Space Agency (ESA). Right from this first launch, the ATV will play a vital role in bringing supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) shifted the attitude control mode of the Kizuna (Wideband InterNetworking engineering test and Demonstration Satellite, WINDS) to the regular control mode and completed its critical operation phase.

ITT’s Space Systems Division has been awarded seven NASA strategic missions concept studies. The space agency periodically conducts these studies to determine future astrophysics missions and technology-development funding.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) deployed the multi-beam antennas of the Kizuna (WINDS) satellite on 1 March (Japan Standard Time) by sending commands from Okinawa station.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded funding to four contractor teams for the first phase of the Future, Fast, Flexible, Fractionated, Free-Flying Spacecraft United by Information Exchange (System F6) space technology and demonstration programme.