■ Arianespace-backed Starsem has been assigned a satellite launch originally allocated to Boeing. The McDonald, Dettwiler & Associates/Canadian Space Agency Radarsat 2 will be launched in December by Russian Soyuz/Fregat booster rather than the originally assigned Boeing Delta II.
■ NASA is seeking proposals worth up to $475 million for a robotic Mars Scout mission to be launched in 2011. The probe could be an orbiter or air- or land-based system that investigates the atmosphere or near or deep subsurface geology.
■ Japan’s IGS 3A and 3B reconnaissance satellites are to be launched in March 2007, delayed from last year. The first two of four planned Information Gathering Satellites to monitor North Korea – IGS 1A with optical sensor and 1B with synthetic-aperture radar – were launched by H-2A booster in March 2003. Two others were lost in a launch failure in the same year.
■ Satellite communications company Orbcomm has raised $110 million to fund the development and launch of a new-generation fleet to replace the 30 current satellites launched between 1995 and 1999. Orbcomm backers include the Pacific Corporate Group and Germany’s OHB Technology.
■ Arianespace made a small, near break-even profit in 2005 on revenues of €1.05 billion ($1.3 billion) revenue and plans up to six Ariane 5 launches in 2006. The company made eight launches in 2005, five with the Ariane 5 and three by its Starsem subsidiary.
■ NASA’s Messenger spacecraft, en route to orbit Mercury, has conducted laser communications with the Earth at a distance of 25 million kilometres (15.5 million miles), compared with the previous record of 6 million kilometres set by the NASA Galileo orbiter en route to Jupiter.
■ Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system’s test satellite Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element (GIOVE)-A has switched on its transmission system and sent the first Galileo navigation signals. Its atomic clocks, which ensure the constellation’s synchronous signal transmission, are also working. GIOVE-B will be launched in April.
Source: Flight International
