Satellite News

The Japanese space agency plans to launch its high-speed Internet satellite Kizuna (or Wideband Inter-Networking engineering test and Demonstration Satellite, WINDS) from Tanegashima Space Center aboard an H-IIA on 23 February (UTC).

SpaceDev, Inc. has been awarded contracts to deliver satellite battery bypass switches for Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) in support of the 1300-series spacecraft platform.

The Ice, Cloud and Land Satellite (ICESat) built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. will continue operations until at least 2010 following a NASA mission extension contract.

The Americom-14 (AMC-14) satellite of SES Americom was delivered to Baikonur, Kazakhstan, to be readied for its Proton M/Briz M launch scheduled for the morning of 15 March local time (the exact time has not yet been announced).

The small Yubileiny satellite built by Reshetnev Association of applied mechanics (NPO PM) arrived at Russia’s Plesetsk cosmodrome on 15 February.

Australian satellite service provider NewSat Ltd. has given some details regarding its planned satellite. The spacecraft is to be named Jabiru after the Asian Black-necked Stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus), which is commonly called Jabiru in Australia.

ICO Global Communications (Holdings) Limited has provided an update on progress towards launching its North American geosynchronous satellite, ICO G1.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. has received a C$7 million (US$6.9 million)contract from NASA to develop an enhanced platform for Dextre, a component of the Canadian Mobile Servicing System for the International Space Station.