Satellite News

NASA will test non-toxic fuel and compatible propulsion system in space for the first time with the Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM), set to launch later this month on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

NanoAvionics, an international nano-satellite missions integrator, and the consortium partners KSAT (Kongsberg Satellite Services) and Antwerp Space have been awarded EUR10 million funding by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020, ESA’s ARTES and private investors.

China’s BeiDou-3 navigation satellite system is expected to be completed in 2020, with a total of 35 satellites, researchers at a conference on the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) said.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) have been co-operating under the KiboCUBE programme launched in 2015 to provide opportunities to deploy CubeSats from the Japanese Experiment Module “Kibo” of the International Space Station (ISS).

Thales Alenia Space and Gazprom Space Systems announced that the Yamal-601 satellite started its transition to the geostationary orbit after an initial problem.

Mitsubishi Electric US, Inc. has launched a Space & Sensing Systems division at its Cypress, CA headquarters. The new division will sell satellite on-board equipment, including solar array panels, lithium-ion batteries, and RF equipment.

A pair of space sails designed and manufactured by the University of Surrey team behind RemoveDEBRIS – a project that demonstrated a number of world-first active debris removal technologies – have been successfully deployed.

Packed with about 1,890 kg of cargo and science, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft departed the International Space Station on 3 June.