October 2018

"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…

This week’s Ariane 5 flight that will send BepiColombo on its way to the planet Mercury has been approved for lift-off on 20 October (UTC) following the launch readiness review held at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018101800

US orbital launch provider Rocket Lab has confirmed it will build its first U.S. launch pad for the Electron rocket at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, USA. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018101801

ESA has awarded a new framework contract and two new work orders to Thales Alenia Space in France, to upgrade the Galileo Mission Segment (GMS) – that element of the world-wide Galileo ground segment dedicated to delivering navigation services – and the Galileo Security Monitoring Centre (GSMC) near Paris, as well as to implement a…

Rocket: Atlas V 551; Payload: AEHF-4; Date: 17 October 2018, 0415 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The satellite successfully separated from the launch vehicle three hours and 32 minutes after lift-off. Satellite Manufacturer Lockheed Martin confirmed signal acquisition at 0747 UTC. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018101700

Arianespace is to launch the National Advanced Optical System (NAOS) under the term of a turnkey contract between OHB Italia and the Luxembourg’s Directorate of Defence. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018101701

Signal failure might have occurred at the moment of separation of the first and second stages of the Soyuz-FG rocket, which triggered the safety system that aborted the launch, according to Sergey Krikalyov, Roskosmos executive director for manned programmes. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018101702

Hispamar, the Brazilian subsidiary of the Spanish satellite-based telecommunications operator Hispasat, and Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. have joined together to offer a new satellite-based broadband connectivity service, focusing on both the residential and corporate market, in order to extend Internet access to the parts of the country that are currently digitally isolated. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018101703

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. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018101600

Thales Alenia Space announced the successful completion of static mechanical validation tests of the first full-scale photovoltaic modules specially designed for its Stratobus autonomous stratospheric airship. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018101601