September 2014

iSAT Africa’s central Earth station for Yamal 402. Photo: Gazprom Space Systems [Via Satellite 09-22-104] Wananchi Group subsidiary iSAT Africa has entered a contract with Gazprom Space Systems (GSS) for capacity on the Yamal 402 satellite. Under the agreement, iSAT Africa will use the satellite’s southern beam for services in the Democratic Republic of Congo…

A SingTel Teleport. Photo: SingTel [Via Satellite 09-22-2014] Inmarsat has selected SingTel to serve as a Value Added Reseller for Global Xpress (GX) with an emphasis on Asian and African markets. Singtel will focus primarily on customers in energy and media, among other verticals. The companies will also collaborate on a wholesale, managed Ka-band service…

Members of the mission team at the Lockheed Martin Mission Support Area in Littleton, Colo., celebrate after successfully inserting NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft into orbit. Photo: NASA/Lockheed Martin [Via Satellite 09-22-2014] Following a 10-month interplanetary journey, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) research satellite has reached the Red Planet. Lockheed Martin, MAVEN’s manufacturer, and NASA’s…

Flight path of Globalstar’s ADS-B test flight. Photo: Globalstar [Via Satellite 09-19-2014] Globalstar, in collaboration with ADS-B Technologies, recently completed a four-day 7,000-mile flight test of a dual-link Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system. The space-based ADS-B Link Augmentation System, or ALAS, is capable of tracking an aircraft’s location for every second of its trip. Traditional…

The International Space Station (ISS). Photo: NASA [Via Satellite 09-19-2014] The European Space Agency (ESA) as awarded MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates’ (MDA’s) Harwell U.K.-based subsidiary a contract to build a Ka-band data relay terminal flight model for the agency’s Columbus module on the International Space Station (ISS). MDA anticipates contract finalization by the end of…

Mating the GOES-R satellite. Photo: Lockheed Martin [Via Satellite 09-19-2014] Lockheed Martin has successfully mated the large system and propulsion modules of NOAA’s first Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R series (GOES-R) next-gen weather satellite. Now, with the core spacecraft assembled, the company will install the six weather and solar monitoring instruments. The GOES-R satellite is scheduled…

Incheon Asian Games 2014 Main Stadium. Photo: South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and TourismKorean Culture and Information Service/Jeon Han [Via Satellite 09-19-2014] Globecast and KTsat have selected AsiaSat to provide transponder capacity for live coverage of the 2014 Asian Games based in Incheon, South Korea. The operator will provide C-band capacity for television feeds…

ISRO’s IRNSS 1A satellite. Photo: ISRO [Via Satellite 09-19-2014] The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has released the Signal-in-Space Interface Control Document (ICD) for Standard Positioning Service (SPS) for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). Currently under development, the IRNSS constellation will serve as India’s domestic Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). The first two…

[Via Satellite 09-19-2014] Commercial satellite weather company PlanetiQ has partnered with Millennium Engineering and Integration to provide hosted payload opportunities on its upcoming satellite constellation. Millennium received a Hosted Payloads Solutions (HoPS) Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract from the U.S. Air Force earlier this summer. PlanetiQ is building a privately funded weather constellation starting…

Blue Origin’s BE-4 Engine Model. Photo: Via Satellite [Via Satellite 09-18-2014] United Launch Alliance (ULA) has selected Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company Blue Origin to build the Blue Engine 4 (BE-4) to replace the Russian-built RD-180, which is currently used to power ULA’s Atlas 5 launch vehicle. The decision follows news from earlier this summer that…