Satellite News

Harris Corporation has received a US$243 million contract from Lockheed Martin to provide fully digital navigation signals for the first two GPS III Follow-On (GPS IIIF) satellites – to deliver stronger signals, with greater operational flexibility.

RUAG Space will deliver a navigation receiver for NASA’s climate mission PACE, which is scheduled to launch in 2022.

BlackSky, a provider of geospatial intelligence, satellite imaging, and global monitoring services, announced it has successfully achieved several significant on-orbit milestones of its first two Earth-imaging spacecraft, Global-1 and -2. Demonstrating the full operational performance of the spacecraft, the company showcased several images of economic points of interest taken by the first two smallsats in its high-revisit, Earth-imaging constellation.

A new, first-of-its-kind space weather model reliably predicts space storms of high-energy particles that are harmful to many satellites and spacecraft orbiting in the Earth’s outer radiation belt.

U.S. small satellite launch company Rocket Lab has announced the next evolution of its mission services: the in-house designed and built Photon satellite platform.

Harris Corporation has received an US$84 million contract to produce Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3), an experimental satellite that will demonstrate new position, navigation and timing capabilities to improve the resiliency of the Global Positioning System (GPS).

India declined to comment on a statement by a U.S. space official that India’s recent test of an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon created debris that could threaten the International Space Station. According to an expert, there are currently no usable data portraying the ASAT test.

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said that India’s recent ASAT test has created 400 pieces of orbital debris, some of which could endanger the International Space Station. Also, a report claims that the test was preceded by another one in February, which however failed.