Satellite News

China’s first global mobile satellite communication and Internet space project via low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites has been launched in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality.

NASA’s InSight has sent signals to Earth indicating that its solar panels are open and collecting sunlight on the Martian surface. NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter relayed the signals.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded a contract to Telesat under which Telesat will undertake investigations that could lead to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) making greater use of commercial low Earth orbit satellite constellations, such as Telesat’s LEO system, for DoD’s future space-based communications.

The NASA InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission landed on Mars at 1953 UTC on 26 November 2018 after an almost seven-month, 458-million kilometer journey from Earth.

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has announced that it is designing a low cost 35-kg lunar communications satellite mission called DoT-4, targeted for a 2021 launch.

NASA’s Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft is on track for a soft touchdown on the surface of the Red Planet on 26 November.

China and Brazil will launch a new Earth resource satellite next year, according to an official with the China National Space Administration.

On 15 November, NASA’s Kepler space telescope received its final set of commands to disconnect communications with Earth. The “goodnight” commands finalise the spacecraft’s transition into retirement, which began on 30 October with NASA’s announcement that Kepler had run out of fuel and could no longer conduct science.