Satellite News

Russia will launch three new broadcasting satellites in 2007, state-owned Russian Space Communications Co. (RSCC) said.

Kazakhstan will announce the results of a tender to design and build two Earth remote sensing (ERS) satellites soon, Education and Science Minister Byrganym Aytimova was quoted as saying.

Ageing batteries have made it necessary to put one of ESA’s Cluster spacecraft into a newly devised low-power mode during eclipse periods. The four identical Cluster satellites are flying in formation to study solar winds and their interaction with the Earth’s magnetic field.

The U.S. Air Force has awarded a contract modification valued at more than US$7.6 million to Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. for software and hardware changes to the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite system.

NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) have entered into a five-year contract that allows the Laboratory to provide research, development and engineering support to the agency, up to a ceiling of US$750 million.

Fourteen laser ranging stations participated in a campaign to track ESA’s GIOVE-A satellite during the spring and summer of 2006, providing data for the characterisation of the satellite’s on-board clock. The campaign was coordinated by the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) and the GIOVE Processing Centre at ESA-ESTEC.

Spirent Communications has been selected by DLR (German Aerospace Center) for delivery of advanced GPS (Global Positioning System)/Galileo test systems.

The Hotbird 8 broadcast satellite of Eutelsat Communications went into commercial service at 13 degrees East on 3 October. The satellite was brought into operation this morning at 0100 UTC.