Government/Military

SSL announced that the Restore-L mission to provide satellite servicing in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) has completed an extensive NASA review called the Mission Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and is on track to meet its next development milestone, called Key Decision Point C (KDP-C). SSL is working with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Satellite Servicing...

Russian photographer Alexander Kaunas visited an abandoned part of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to unveil its secrets lost to time. In this short video, Kaunas discovers the Soviet Union’s answer to the United States’ space shuttle program during the Cold War. Take a look via National Geographic.

Sitael and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) have signed the prime contract for the Platino program, which aims to develop a new generation of multi-purpose 200kg small satellites for multi-mission applications. For this program, Sitael has built up an industrial team that includes Thales Alenia Space, Space Engineering and Leonardo. According to Sitael, Platino is...

Now in its new GOES-East position, the  GOES 16 satellite has officially joined the  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) operational observation network, providing forecasters with sharper, more defined images of severe storms, hurricanes, wildfires and other weather hazards in near real-time 24/7. Since its launch in November 2016, NOAA’s GOES 16, even in its...

Harris Corporation delivered the advanced navigation payload for the fourth GPS 3 Space Vehicle (SV04) to Lockheed Martin on Oct. 29. Harris delivered two payloads in 2017 and has committed to delivering four more in 2018. Harris is under contract with Lockheed Martin for 10 GPS 3 navigation payloads. The first payload is fully integrated...

North Korea recently made public its plans to launch two new satellites: one it vaguely describes as an “Earth remote exploration satellite” and the other a heavy telecommunications satellite that will be placed in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO). The satellites’ capabilities, however, are generating some suspicion in the international community. Could they be used to...

The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded Serco a contract to facilitate open and unlimited access to Earth Observation (EO) data and geospatial information collected as part of the Copernicus program, paving the way for entrepreneurs and developers to use the data to create a range of innovative new applications and services. The four-year contract...

The Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX) successfully established remote connectivity and communicated with the first GPS 3 satellite, further validating that the U.S. Air Force is ready to launch the first in a series of new GPS assets. According to the Air Force, GPS 3 Space Vehicle 01 (GPS 3 SV01), the first of...