Satellite News

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin a US$6 million contract to develop and integrate a demonstration payload that will temporarily transmit a third civil signal on a modernised Global Positioning System Block IIR (GPS IIR-M) satellite.

In its first on-orbit demonstration 480 km above the Earth, Boeing’s Orbital Express system autonomously transferred propellant fuel and a battery from one spacecraft to another, marking industry firsts for the system.

AeroAstro announced that STPSat-1 successfully completed Normal Operations Readiness Review (NORR), conducted on 28 March at the Space Development and Test Wing (SDTW) at Kirtland Air Force Base.

China’s recently launched Beidou M1 navigation satellite has arrived at its medium Earth orbit, Xinhua reported citing the Xi’an Satellite Control Center.

The European Space Agency said it has moved one step closer to defining its scientific programme for 2015-2025.

Russia plans to bring the number of civilian communications satellites to 16 in 2008.

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) said it has successfully completed the Mission Design Review (MDR) for the N2 (NigeriaSat-2) satellite mission.

Northrop Grumman Corporation has submitted a proposal to compete for the U.S. Air Force’s Global Positioning System (GPS) Next Generation Control Segment (OCX) contract.