Satellite News

Raytheon Company’s Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) has successfully completed the required objectives and task requirements for conducting risk reduction activities for the U.S. Air Force Space Fence S-band Radar programme.

With an award in excess of US$10 million, scientists from the University of New Hampshire’s Space Science Center have been selected to build an instrument for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) third-generation weather satellites under the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) Program.

Iran has developed a plasma-thrusting engine for spacecraft stationkeeping, state television said quoting the country’s defence ministry.

Russia’s Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center will build KazSat 2 with the help of Russian and foreign companies, Novosti news agency reported.

ESA’s energy-deprived Mars Express spacecraft has emerged from an eclipse season introducing a special, ultra-low-power mode nicknamed “Sumo.” The development of this new mode had become necessary as a faulty connection, discovered after launch, reduced the available power by almost a third.

NASA has extended the missions of its two Mars rovers as well as that of Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey.

Boeing said it has completed Spacecraft Thermal Vacuum (SCTV) testing for the first of its Wideband Gapfiller Satellites (WGS). The tests evaluated the WGS operating systems’ ability to withstand the extreme temperatures of space.

China’s seed-breeding satellite, Shijian-8, successfully landed in Sichuan Province after a 15-day flight in space. The recoverable satellite was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwest China desert on 9 September.