Satellite News

Fengyun-2D, China’s new meteorological satellite launched on 8 December, has successfully entered a “quasi-synchronous” orbit as directed by ground-control, according to the Xi’an satellite control centre.

The Measat-3 communications satellite is scheduled for launch aboard an ILS Proton M/Briz M from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on 11 December 2006 at 1828 UTC.

General Dynamics was awarded a US$23.3 million contract by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center to support research and development efforts on the Alternative Infrared Satellite System (AIRSS) programme.

Aerojet, a GenCorp Inc. company, announced the company has signed a teaming agreement for rights in the United States, Japan and South America to integrate Russian-built Hall-effect thrusters into Aerojet’s existing portfolio of electric propulsion systems for commercial and scientific satellites.

The service module of ESA’s Herschel spacecraft has passed its assembly and verification tests, and is now ready to move towards its final integration and test phases.

NASA’s GeneSat-1 is set to launch into orbit on an Air Force rocket on 11 December from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island. The launch window extends from 1200 to 1500 UTC.

An Ariane 5 ECA is to launch two U.S. communications satellites on 8 December within a launch window that extends from 2208 to 2251 UTC.

The launch of the second Galileo test satellite, GIOVE B, has reportedly been further delayed because of ongoing problems during testing.