Arianespace Successfully launches ESA’s Fourth ATV

Thales Alenia Space has announced the successful liftoff of the European Space Agency’s fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), named after famous scientist Albert Einstein. Arianespace performed the launch from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

The unmanned ATV cargo spacecraft will automatically dock with the International Space Station (ISS) to deliver more than two tons of cargo including experimental equipment, spare parts, food, air and water supplies for the astronauts aboard. The pressurized Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC) module was built by Thales Alenia Space. Using control and monitoring systems in the Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC) service module, also developed by Thales.

ESA Awards Astrium Euclid Payload Module Contract

Astrium has been awarded the payload module contract for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) future astronomy mission Euclid, due for launch in 2020. Astrium will deliver a fully integrated module incorporating a 1.2-meter diameter silicon carbide (SiC) telescope and housing the mission’s science instruments.

Euclid is the second medium class mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision program. With the goal of understanding the origin of the universe’s accelerating expansion, the mission will map the geometry of the dark universe with high accuracy.

Euclid will collect deep and high-resolution images of the sky by rotating the spacecraft once every 80 minutes. Within six years of observation, covering more than one third of the entire sky, the mission is expected to measure the shapes of, and distances to, more than 2 billion galaxies.

Thales Alenia Space Partners With Swiss Space Systems to Develop Suborbital Vehicle

At the International Aeronautics and Space Show in Paris, Thales Alenia Space announced the signing of a new deal with Swiss Space System (S3). Under the agreement, Thales Alenia Space will design and develop a pressurized compartment for the Sub-Orbital Aircraft Reusable (SOAR) vehicle. The compartment is intended to house scientific experiments and astronauts depending on mission requirements.

This agreement will allow S3 to further develop the project, also proposing research applications in the areas of microgravity and suborbital passenger transportation. The SOAR project also counts with collaborations from ESA’s Astronaut Center and other important aerospace industries.

Orange Romania Launches TV-Service with Globecast on Astra

GlobeCast and SES are providing services to Orange Romania for the launch of a DTH satellite TV package. The package will use multiple transponders on Astra’s 31.5 degrees east orbital position and will be broadcasting the DVB-S2 and MPEG4 technical standards. GlobeCast will provide contribution, encryption and encoding for standard definition and high definition channels in the package.

Orange Romania will launch the new TV package to complement its existing mobile service, enabling the company to offer full multi-device communication services to its customers. The company booked this service through GlobeCast, which is providing a complete solution to bring Orange Romania’s channels to the point of uplink and prepare them for broadcast on capacity that GlobeCast has leased from SES.

RRsat Breaks into Russian Market with New Office in Moscow

RRsat Global Communications Network, a provider of digital content management and global distribution services to the television and radio broadcasting industry, has opened a new office in Moscow, Russia.

RRsat’s Moscow office is a step toward establishing a presence in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a market of tens of millions of households. This step has been preceded by efforts to assemble the required infrastructure, including local premium platforms, strategic partnerships and alliances, and the recruitment of a local team to provide tailored solutions for broadcasting in and out of this region.