Satellite News

Boeing plans to install advanced anti-jamming technology on some future commercial satellites, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Georgia Tech researchers have developed a new prototype xenon ion engine that allows satellites to take off with less fuel, opening the door for deep space missions, lower launch costs and more payload in orbit.

The U.S. Department of Defense is expected to seek bids for the first phase of the GPS III contract in mid-to-late March and announce a single winning team by late August, Candrea Thomas, a spokeswoman for the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center was quoted as saying.

Vietnam plans to harness space technology by building its own remote sensing satellites in the next decade, a top space official has said. The country had earlier planned to launch the first such spacecraft in late 2007 or early 2008.

EchoStar announced that a Hong Kong-based affiliate of the company will become the primary provider of S-band satellite capacity for China’s mobile video project.

ISS Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin retracted a stuck antenna on a cargo spacecraft during a 6-hour, 18-minute spacewalk.

Boeing has successfully completed a critical design review of key Ultra High Frequency (UHF) payload subsystems for the U.S. Navy’s Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) programme. Boeing will provide its Legacy UHF payload to Lockheed Martin, prime contractor for the MUOS programme.

Aerojet has delivered a new generation of 4.5 kilowatt Hall thrusters — the highest power flight-qualified Hall thrusters in the world — to Lockheed Martin Space Systems in support of the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) Air Force mission.