Satellite News

China has finished assembling its first lunar satellite probe, Chang’e I, after three years of research and development, Xinhua news agency reported.

The SES satellites AMC-12/Astra 4A and AAP-1 have been transferred to SES New Skies, which will now be responsible for all customer and capacity management activities associated with these satellites.

SpaceDev announced that its subsidiary, Starsys, Inc., has been awarded a follow-on order for the solar array rotational drive assemblies and drive control electronics for the DigitalGlobe WorldView-2 satellite programme from Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation.

The launch of several experimental satellites on the STP-1 mission aboard an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is now scheduled for 9 March between 0237 and 0442 UTC.

It was supposed to be China’s first next-generation navigation satellite, the cornerstone for a global positioning system. But instead, Beidou 1D (sometimes also referred to as Beidou 2A) might just be the latest setback for the country’s space programme.

ESA has awarded a contract to Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (UK) for initial activities leading to the construction of a second spacecraft for the Galileo satellite navigation system, the completion of which just seems to have slipped back further.

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) successfully completed critical design review, giving Northrop Grumman Corporation the green-light to complete building flight hardware for the mission.

SES Americom said it conducted its last operations on the SATCOM C-4 satellite, safely de-orbiting the satellite more than 250 km beyond the geosynchronous orbital belt.