Satellite News

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin a contract valued at approximately US$50 million to execute a System Design Review for the next generation Global Positioning System space segment programme, known as GPS Block III.

Space Micro Inc. announced that its Proton100k Space Computer was launched successfully aboard the TacSat-2 Satellite on 16 December.

Scientists at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center have met a critical milestone in the development of aerocapture technology, a manoeuvre that primarily uses a planet’s atmosphere to capture a spacecraft and place it in the desired orbit.

Swales Aerospace has completed the Critical Design Review (CDR), for the TacSat-3 Modular Bus programme, which is sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicle Directorate (AFRL/VS), as part of the Department of Defense Operationally Responsive Space initiative.

South Korea plans to build an infrared sensing satellite that will be able to detect real airplanes parked at military air bases from fakes, according to the National Space Committee.

The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUVI) instrument — designed and built at the Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory of the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center (ATC) — has begun returning images of the Sun’s corona as part of NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO).

The newest modernised Global Positioning System Block IIR (GPS IIR-M) satellite, designed and built by Lockheed Martin , has been declared fully operational by the U.S. Air Force following successful on-orbit deployment and checkout of all spacecraft systems.

XM Satellite Radio has announced the completion of its new two-satellite broadcast system. The company’s first two satellites have been switched off and will serve as spares.