News on key developments at SupremeSAT, and general news on the Space and Satellite industry from across the web
NSR’s industry-first China Satcom Markets (CSM) report finds a Chinese satellite industry primed to take a larger share of the global satcom market through attractive one-stop-shop offerings, aggressive growth plans and enhanced exports. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018021804
The re-ignitable Vinci engine, which will power the upper stage of the Ariane 6 launcher, has now successfully completed its last two subsystems qualification campaigns (M6 and M7) with 140 engine tests conducted. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018021500
Vector, a nanosatellite launch company, and Open Cosmos, a space mission provider, announced an agreement to reserve five orbital launches between 2019 and 2023 on the Vector-R launch vehicle. The announcement comes in advance of Vector’s first orbital launch in July. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018021501
Ball Aerospace delivered the TIRS-2 Flight Cryocooler for the Landsat 9 TIRS-2 instrument ahead of schedule to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Achieving this milestone early will allow GSFC additional time and options during the instrument integration and test phase. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018021502
Maxar Technologies Ltd. announced plans to move its corporate headquarters to Westminster, Colorado from San Francisco. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018021503
Microsat Systems Canada Inc ("MSCI") announced that they have selected MDA, a Maxar Technologies company, to provide the payload for a MSCI’s microsatellite based Synthetic Aperture Radar. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018021400
On 31 January NASA ended the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer’s (TES) almost 14-year operation. Launched in 2004 on NASA’s Aura spacecraft, TES was the first instrument designed to monitor ozone in the lowest layers of the atmosphere directly from space. Its high-resolution observations led to new measurements of atmospheric gases that have altered our understanding of…
Rocket: Soyuz-2.1a; Payload: Progress MS-08 [Progress P69]; Date: 13 February 2018, 0813 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The Progress cargo transportation spacecraft developed and built by RSC Energia was successfully put into a low Earth orbit. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018021300
Designed for a contractual orbital life of 10 years, the Eutelsat 16C/SESAT telecommunications satellite has now been deorbited after 17 years and 10 months of operational service. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018021301
In order to help minimise early stage satellite mission failures, Infostellar has released a web-based LEOP (Launch and Early Orbit phase) support tool for amateur UHF satellites called StellarStation Amateur. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018021302