Satellite News

The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) has officially taken over the control of SES Sirius’s telecommunication satellite Sirius 4.

MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) has completed the first of three planned Mercury flybys.

Harris Corporation has been selected by the U.S. Air Force for the Network and Space Operations and Maintenance (NSOM) programme.

Alliant Techsystems said the constellation of five micro satellites it built for NASA’s THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) mission successfully completed its initial Coast Phase science operations.

Measat Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd, Malaysia, announced the expansion of its satellite network into Africa with the commissioning of the Africasat-1 (f.k.a. MEASAT-1) satellite at the 46 degrees East orbital location.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is in the midst of integration and testing at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the agency said.

Russia plans to launch 15 (non-military) satellites in 2008, the Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) said according to Interfax.

In the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Swarm mission in 2010, GPS antennas will measure the Earth’s magnetic field with extreme accuracy. Two antennas will be placed on each satellite. The position of the antennas is particularly important because it has a significant impact on the efficiency and accuracy of the measurements.