Satellite News

The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 spacecraft sprang loose from its Prox-1 carrier vehicle as planned yesterday, and sent its first signals back to mission control at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in California.

A research institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has announced a constellation programme, planning to launch 72 small satellites for the Internet of Things in the next three years.

Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded a contract by Space Norway to deliver its Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM) system. Northrop Grumman will design, manufacture and integrate two satellites for highly elliptical orbit (HEO) in addition to providing critical ground infrastructure.

The use of electric propulsion for raising satellites into geostationary orbit can result in significant solar cell degradation according to a new study. The extended journey time results in greater exposure to the damaging effects of space weather. Understanding the size of this risk is essential for commercial operators to take steps to mitigate the effects and protect their assets.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Kominfo) has selected the consortium led by the domestic satellite operator Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN) to deploy and operate a broadband telecommunication satellite. This consortium has awarded Thales Alenia Space to design and manufacture the satellite named SATRIA (Indonesian for ‘knight’).

Airbus said it has enlarged its high-resolution imagery portfolio following an agreement to leverage capacity from the S1-4 satellite built by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL). This new imagery offer called Vision-1 delivers full end-to-end imaging operations to Airbus’ customers.

China’s two ocean observation satellites, HY-1C and HY-2B, have completed their in-orbit delivery, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources.

NASA announced that it has selected Dragonfly, a rotorcraft-lander expedition to Saturn’s large moon Titan as the next mission in its New Frontiers programme.