SSI News
TESS planet finder mission selected by NASA
Following on from the success of its Kepler mission in descovering planets, NASA has selected the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission for construction and then launch in 2017. Orbital Sciences Corporation has been awarded a contract to construct the spacecraft which will be equiped with wide-angle optical telescopes which will monitor any decrease in stellar brightness which is a signature clue that a planet has just passed in front of a star. The spacecraft will be operated from an elliptical orbit around Earth and have a two year lifespan.
Boeing announces new range of satellite designs
Boeing has announced a new range of satellite designs. See the full story here.
Radarsat 1 suffers power fault
A power related fault which occured on 29 March has ended operations of the Canadian Spce Agency’s Radarsat 1. Unless engineers can recover the craft, the spacecraft will be retired due to failure. The spacecraft had exceeded its five year design life by over 12 years. A second radarsat spacecraft, Radarsat 2, remains in operation in orbit having been launched in 2007. Both Radarsats were designed to take Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery of the Earth.
Asiasat agrees to take hosted weather payloads on its satellites
The Hong Kong-based commercial satellite operator Asiasat has announced that it has formed an agreement with GeoMetWatch Corp to place six hosted payloads for the purposes of meteorolgy on its satellites. The first of six Sounding and Tracking Observatory for Regional Meteorolog (STORM) instruments will be placed on an Asiasat communications satellite launched in 2016.
What effect did the “Iron Lady” have on Britain’s space effort?
The death of former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher has prompted much debate regarding her achievements and mistakes. But what effect did the “Iron Lady” have on Britain’s space effort?
Mars Curiosity Rover is put to sleep for a month
Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena have put the Mars Curiosity Rover into a one month hibernation starting on 4 April. The reason is that the planetary alignment of Mars puts the sun and its atmosphere of highly charged particles more or less directly in the way of direct communications between Mars and Earth which makes commanding the spacecraft difficult. A basic signal transmitted from the rover effectively saying “I am still alive” can still be received but commanding the rover has been suspended until 1 May.
Arianespace loses leader Le Gall to CNES
The well-respected CEO of the European launch provider Arianespace, Jean-Yves Le Gall, has been appointed as the new Head of the French Space Agency CNES by French President François Hollande. The move will mark a return to the agency which offered Le Gall ihs first job as a researcher following his engineering studies at University. During his career Le Gall was also Assistant Director General of CNES from 1996-1998.
ILS gets contract for two Proton launches from Intelsat
The Khrunichev majority-owned commercial launch provider International Launch Services (ILS) has announced on 28 March that it has been awarded a contract for two launches by the commercial communications satellite operator Intelsat for the launch of two of its planned spacecraft. The spacecraft, which will be launched on Russian Khrunichev-built Proton M/Breeze M launch vehicles have, as yet, not been named.
Japan orders three more Quasi-Zenith navigation satellites
In a similar vein to Europe’s EGNOS satellite navigation overlay system, to improve the accuracy and availabilty of GPS navigation signals in Japan, the Cabinet Office of the Japanese government has announced that has planned a $525 million contract with the Japanese spacecraft manufacturer Mitsibushi to build three new satellites as part of its Quasi-Zenith programme. The three satellites will form a constelaltion of four with the first Quasi-Zenith (Mischibiki) satellite (QZS-1) which is already in orbit after being launched in 2010.
THAAD interceptor missiles to be based on Guam following North Korean threats
While the actual war fighting intent of North Korea remains an enigma, its various “sabre-rattling” threats to conduct a nuclear first strike on neighbouring countries and US bases in the region is being taken seriously, especially in the light of Japanese media reports that satellites have observed long range or medium range ballistic missiles being transported to the coastline of North Korea.
As such, while Japanese and US Aegis/Standard Missile SM-3 equipped naval destroyers and cruisers have already been deployed in the Sea of Japan, the US Department of Defense has also announced that it is to also deploy land-based THAAD missile intercepters to protect its bomber aircraft base in Guam. While North Korea is officiallly doubted to have yet managed to acquire the capability to hit mainland USA with nuclear weapons, it is believed to have the ballistic missile capability, via its Taepodong-2 missiles or newer KN-08 missiles, to hit the island of Guam and mainland Japan.
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