Satellite News

SSTL, the company that built the only Galileo satellite to reach orbit so far, wants to build more.

INSAT-4CR, launched from Sriharikota on 2 September, was today successfully placed in its final geosynchronous orbit, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G. Madhavan Nair said.

Boeing has successfully assembled and integrated all flight hardware onto the first Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF satellite, due for launch in 2008.

An unmanned Foton-M3 capsule, carrying a payload of around 40 European experiments, will launch onboard a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 14 September at 1100 UTC.

Iranian state radio said that the country’s Mesbah satellite was ready to be launched.

Alliant Techsystems announced that the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded the company a US$3.3 million contract, with options worth an additional US$4.7 million, to develop a multi-mode propulsion system for small spacecraft.

In the fifth and final orbit-raising operation conducted from Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka, INSAT-4CR has been successfully placed in near-geosynchronous orbit.

NASA is preparing the first of three Solar Dynamic Observatories (SDO)to monitor the sun’s ultraviolet brightness.