Satellite News

SSL has shipped two Earth observation satellites to Vandenberg Air Force Base where they will be launched on Spaceflight’s first Sun Synchronous dedicated rideshare mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope returned to normal operations late Friday, 26 October and completed its first science observations on Saturday, 27 October.

MDA announced that it has shipped, as planned, the third and final satellite for the Radarsat Constellation Mission (RCM) that MDA is building for the Canadian Space Agency. The constellation will launch from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft executed its second Asteroid Approach manoeuvre (AAM-2). The spacecraft’s main engine thrusters fired in a braking manoeuvre designed to slow the spacecraft’s speed relative to Bennu from 141 m/s to 5.2 m/s. Likewise, the spacecraft’s approach speed dropped from nearly 12,200 km to 450 km per day.

Orbit Logic said that NASA has selected the company’s STK Scheduler software for the Restore-L technology demonstration mission. During its mission, the Restore-L spacecraft will demonstrate the technologies required to rendezvous with, grasp, refuel and relocate a government-owned satellite.

“Chandra remains in its normal pointing mode and has been manoeuvred to ensure the spacecraft and instruments remain at a cool operating temperature. The Flight Operations Team has completed testing and simulation of the procedures and on-board software updates that will place Chandra into a new gyroscope configuration with the gyroscope that caused the 10 October safe mode in reserve.”

KBR, Inc. announced that its global government services business, KBRwyle, has been awarded a US $48 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to construct, deploy and commission the next generation Space Geodesy (SG) Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) ground systems.

The cause of Chandra’s safe mode on 10 October has now been understood and the Operations team has successfully returned the spacecraft to its normal pointing mode.