Satellite News

Spacehab, Incorporated announced that in accordance with the milestone requirements of its Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA, the company hosted a formal Systems Requirements Review of its Advanced Research and Conventional Technology Utilisation Spacecraft (ARCTUS) recently at its Houston Headquarters facility.

ESA’s Science Programme Committee has unanimously approved to continue the operations of the Ulysses spacecraft until March 2009. This latest extension, for a period of 12 months, is the fourth in the history of the joint NASA/ESA mission.

China is aiming to replace all its imported communications and broadcast satellites with improved home-made ones by 2010.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) recently carried out an observation using two onboard sensors of the Moon Explorer Kaguya (SELENE,) the Terrain Camera (TC) and Multi-band Imager (MI), processed the acquired data, and confirmed they were functioning properly.

The Sirius 4 communications satellite, designed and built by Lockheed Martin for SES Sirius, is ready for launch on 18 November from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Proton M/Briz M launch vehicle provided by International Launch Services.

ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft successfully swung by Earth at 2057 UTC on 13 November. The spacecraft will now be catapulted towards the outer Solar System with its newly-gained energy before coming back to Earth for another boost.

The mission operations of European flagship x-ray and gamma-ray observatories, XMM-Newton and Integral, have been extended until 31 December 2012.

Orbital Sciences Corporation has been selected by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate for a US$29.5 million contract to support the execution of the Autonomous Nanosatellite Guardian for Evaluating Local Space satellite programme.