News on key developments at SupremeSAT, and general news on the Space and Satellite industry from across the web
Aerojet Rocketdyne recently delivered four RL10 upper stage engines to NASA’s Stennis Space Center that will help power NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020020302
Intelsat has selected Maxar Technologies to manufacture Intelsat 40e, a next-generation geostationary communications satellite scheduled to launch in 2022. Maxar will integrate NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) payload with the Intelsat 40e satellite. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020020303
IMAP, a mission to study the interaction of the solar wind with the ancient cast-off winds of other stars, and the fundamental process of particle acceleration in space, has completed a critical NASA review and is now moving closer toward a scheduled launch in 2024. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020020304
Kinéis said it has reached its capital-raising target of EUR100 million. CLS, CNES, Bpifrance via the fund for Industrial Project Companies (SPI), financed by the ‘Investments for the Future’ Programme and the European Investment Bank, Ifremer, Thales, CELAD, BNP Paribas Développement, HEMERIA and other industrial and financial partners are investing in and supporting Kinéis’ ambition…
Rocket: Electron/Curie; Payload: NROL-151; Date: 31 January 2020, 0256 UTC; Launch site: Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand. The classified payload was launched on behalf of the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Details regarding the payload and the target orbit were not available. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020020200
OneWeb confirmed its upcoming launch of 34 satellites has been scheduled for Thursday, 6 February at 2142 UTC from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020020201
The upper stage of the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket, whose 24 January launch was postponed due to a technical malfunction, will be replaced, a space industry source was quoted as saying. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020020202
Maxar Technologies announced that it was selected by NASA to perform an in-space assembly demonstration using a lightweight robotic arm. The arm, called SPIDER (Space Infrastructure Dexterous Robot), will be integrated with the spacecraft bus Maxar is building for NASA’s Restore-L project, which plans to refuel a satellite in low Earth orbit. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020020203
After more than 16 years studying the universe in infrared light, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope’s mission has come to an end. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020020204
Northrop Grumman Corporation held a groundbreaking ceremony to highlight its expansion of the company’s satellite engineering and manufacturing operations in Arizona. The expansion includes a 9,300 m² addition to its existing satellite manufacturing facility and a new 11,100 m² administrative and engineering building. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2020020205