News on key developments at SupremeSAT, and general news on the Space and Satellite industry from across the web
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has completed the build of the platform for Eutelsat QUANTUM, the world’s first geostationary telecommunications satellite that will be fully reconfigurable in orbit. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019010902
At 1723 UTC on 8 January the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope suspended operations due to a hardware problem, NASA said in a brief statement- http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019010903
ESA’s Hera mission concept, currently under study, would be humanity’s first mission to a binary asteroid: the 800 m-diameter Didymos is accompanied by a 170 m-diameter secondary body. The spacecraft will carry two tiny CubeSats for deployment around – and eventual landing on – the Didymos asteroids. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019010800
The University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) announced the successful launch of three formation-flying microsatellites built by SFL under contract to Deep Space Industries for HawkEye 360 Inc. The microsatellites were launched last year into low Earth orbit on 3 December 2018, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019010801
Maxar Technologies Inc. reported that its WorldView-4 satellite (formerly known as GeoEye-2) experienced a failure in its control moment gyros ("CMGs"), preventing the satellite from collecting imagery due to the loss of an axis of stability. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019010700
The launch of Russia’s Progress MS-11 to the ISS has been rescheduled to 4 April, a space industry source was quoted as saying. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019010701
Frost & Sullivan forecasts an estimated launch demand for 11,746 small satellites for new constellation installations and replacement missions by 2030. Such demand would take the small-satellite launch services market past the US$69 billion mark and present significant growth opportunities throughout the industry. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019010702
The launch date for the NORL-71 mission to be flown aboard a ULA Delta IV Heavy from Vandenberg Air Force Base is still under review. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019010600
Russia plans to launch rockets produced by enterprises of Roskosmos 45 times in 2019, a two-fold increase compared with 2018, a source in the aerospace industry was quoted as saying. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019010601
NanoRacks has signed its first customer contract for a small satellite rideshare on the India Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2019010602