News on key developments at SupremeSAT, and general news on the Space and Satellite industry from across the web
Russia’s State Commission has set a preliminary date of 20 February for the launch from Plesetsk of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket with a Meridian military satellite atop, which was previously cancelled, a source in the rocket and space industry was quoted as saying. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020021603
Eutelsat Communications announced that the GEO-3 payload of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS), a hosted payload aboard its Eutelsat 5 West B satellite, has successfully entered into service. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020021604
Four satellites of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) have recently passed tests in orbit and started operation in the network, according to China’s Satellite Navigation System Management Office. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020021605
The Board of Directors of Eutelsat Communications reviewed the financial results for the half-year ending 31 December 2019. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020021606
NASA has selected four Discovery Program investigations to develop concept studies for new missions. Although they’re not official missions yet and some ultimately may not be chosen to move forward, the selections focus on compelling targets and science that are not covered by NASA’s active missions or recent selections. Final selections will be made next…
On 3 February, the U.S. Space Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s (SMC) fifth Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF-5) communications satellite was successfully transferred to Space Operations Command (SpOC). http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020021301
Channel network and content distributor AfricaXP has signed multi-year agreements with Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) for Ku-band capacity on two Eutelsat satellites, positioned at 16° East and 7° East. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020021302
Astranis announced a US$90 million financing round to launch its first commercial satellite. The round was led by Venrock, with significant participation from existing investor Andreessen Horowitz. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020021303
The U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center Development Corps signed a US$253.6 million payload development award with Northrop Grumman for the first of up to four separate payload development awards for the Protected Tactical SATCOM (PTS) acquisition. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020021304
The Russian weather satellite Meteor-M No.2-3, previously scheduled for launch in 2020, will be launched next year, the Roskosmos press service was quoted as saying. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020021200