Satellite News

Nigeria has started work on the design and construction of its second Earth observation satellite, the Director General of the National Space Research and Development Agency Robert Boroffice said.

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) said it has delivered the first of four flight SGR-10 GPS receivers to SpaceDev.

The second modernised Global Positioning System (GPS) Block IIR satellite built by Lockheed Martin for the U.S. Air Force is set for launch aboard a Delta II rocket on 25 September from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The launch window extends from 1850 to 1903 UTC.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Astrium GmbH have signed a co-operation agreement and contract for building the satellite TanDEM-X. The agreement marks a continuation of the public-private partnership between DLR and industry established under the TerraSAR-X project.

Spacehab’s Astrotech Space Operations subsidiary has been awarded a new payload processing services contract by NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Russian and French engineers will jointly design two telecom satellites, Ekspress-AM 33 and Ekspress-AM 44, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Italian and U.S. space centres have received the first signals from the Italian-built SHARAD (SHAllow RADar) aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

NASA said it is preparing major instrument components for JAXA’s Solar-B spacecraft. The satellite is scheduled for launch aboard the last M-V rocket from the Uchinoura Space Center, Kagoshima, Japan on 22 September 2006 between 2100 and 2200 UTC.