Satellite News

Thales Alenia Space has signed a contract with OHB System AG for the new ESA programme PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) . OHB System AG will be the prime contractor with Thales Alenia Space as a partner. PLATO will be the third medium-class (M3) science mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision Program, following Solar Orbiter (M1) and Euclid (M2), and preceding Ariel (M4). The satellite will be launched in 2026 for an initial mission length of 4.5 years.

Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, this week commanded the agency’s Curiosity rover to switch to its second computer. The switch will enable engineers to do a detailed diagnosis of a technical issue that has prevented the rover’s active computer from storing science and some key engineering data since 15 September.

JAXA successfully released another landing probe from its Hayabusa2 spacecraft toward the asteroid Ryugu. The robot is named Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout, or MASCOT. It was jointly developed by the German and French space agencies, and is about the size of a microwave oven.

NASA has issued a statement about the International Space Station Leak Investigation. Roskosmos’ position reportedly is slightly different.

NASA and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have appointed a board to investigate an instrument anomaly aboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) 17 weather satellite currently in orbit.

SSL announced it was selected by NASA for two separate public-private partnerships to develop two vital “Tipping Point” spacecraft technologies.

Ground controllers successfully installed the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Kounotori 7 H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-7) to the International Space Station’s Earth-facing port of the Harmony module on 27 September (UTC).

Lockheed Martin received a contract for the first two GPS IIIF satellites, Space Vehicles 11 and 12, which are follow-ons to the initial 10-satellites of the new GPS III constellation.