News on key developments at SupremeSAT, and general news on the Space and Satellite industry from across the web
Russia plans to start creating a national remote satellite sensing centre next year and, by 2022, the country is expected to have about 20 remote sensing satellites on orbit, said Valery Zaichko, the deputy director of the navigational space systems department of Roskosmos. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019111200
Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe will leave orbit around asteroid Ryugu and head for Earth tomorrow, with the probe expected to drop off samples from Ryugu some time in late 2020. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019111201
Geospatial intelligence provider BlackSky announced it has secured a US$50 million senior secured loan from Intelsat. The transaction results in an industry first, creating a strategic relationship that pairs Earth observation with a global communications infrastructure. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019111202
A total of RUB11 billion (about US$169 million) were stolen during the construction of the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East and only RUB3.5 billion (US$53.8 million) were returned to the state coffers, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019111203
Eutelsat Communications announced a multiyear contract signature with Orao Telecom Congofor video capacity aboard one of its satellites located at 7° East, a privileged position for Africa. In a first for the African continent, Orao Telecom Congo has also signed up to Eutelsat CIRRUS; Eutelsat’s hybrid satellite/OTT (Over The Top) delivery of channels. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019111204
Rocket: Falcon 9; Payload: 60 Starlink satellites; Date: 11 November 2019, 1456 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, USA. The satellites were released into 280-km orbits. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019111100
Aerojet Rocketdyne and NASA recently demonstrated an Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS) thruster at full power for the first time, achieving an important programme milestone. Aerojet Rocketdyne-developed AEPS thrusters are slated to be used on the Power and Propulsion Element of NASA’s Gateway, the agency’s orbiting lunar outpost for robotic and human exploration operations in…
NASA will contribute an instrument to a European space mission that will explore the atmospheres of hundreds of planets orbiting stars beyond our Sun, or exoplanets, for the first time. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019111102
Spacecom, operator of the Amos satellite fleet, announced that a leading Angolan satellite services company has signed a contract for C-Band HTS capacity on the newly launched Amos-17 communication satellite. The Angolan company will utilise capacity on Amos-17 primarily for cellular backhaul to better connect rural and low-density communities throughout the Southern African country. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019111103
The launch of OneWeb satellites from the Baikonur cosmodrome was postponed from December this year to January 2020, three sources in Russia’s rocket and space industry said according to Novosti. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019111000