News on key developments at SupremeSAT, and general news on the Space and Satellite industry from across the web
Rocket: Electron; Payload: 30 smallsats; Date: 20 November 2020, 1520 UTC; Launch site: Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand. The ‘Return to Sender’ mission deployed satellites for TriSept, Swam Technologies, Unseenlabs, and the Auckland Programme for Space Systems at The University of Auckland. The mission brings the total number of satellites launched by Rocket Lab to 95.…
OneWeb announced its emergence from U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and achievement of all relevant regulatory approvals. A consortium of UK Government (through the UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) and Bharti Global, has invested US$1 billion of new equity to offer broadband connectivity services, via a constellation of 650 LEO…
Speedcast International Limited and Inmarsat announced that they have reached agreement on the sale of Speedcast’s primary Fleet Xpress, FleetBroadband and Fleet One service contracts to Inmarsat. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020112202
Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich; Date: 21 November 2020, 1717 UTC; Launch site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA. The satellite was delivered into orbit just under an hour after lift-off and contact was established at the ground station in Alaska at 1849 UTC. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020112100
With the upcoming launch of ocean monitoring satellite Sentinel-6, two new Precise Orbit Determination Receivers (PODRIX) from RUAG Space will make their maiden flight. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020111900
Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) has been awarded a contract by GHGSat of Montreal to build the next three microsatellites in its commercial greenhouse gas monitoring constellation. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020111901
Eutelsat Communications has agreed the disposal of its 51% stake in Euro Broadband Infrastructure (EBI), the company operating the KA SAT satellite, and related European broadband business to Viasat Inc, its 49% shareholder, for an initial consideration of EUR140 million. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020111902
Russia’s Arktika-M, the first satellite to monitor the Arctic climate and environment, is going to be launched in February 2021, according to a source in the space and rocket industry. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020111800
UK communications company OneWeb is planning to have eight to ten satellite launches in 2021 from the Guiana Space Center and the Baikonur and Vostochny spaceports, a spokesperson for Glavkosmos, a subsidiary of Roskosmos state space corporation, was quoted as saying. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020111801
Astroscale Holdings Inc. announced that its End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) mission will launch on a Soyuz rocket operated by GK Launch Services from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, in March 2021. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020111802