Latest Satellite Stories
ESA The design of Europe’s data relay satellite system – EDRS - has been completed and approved. This marks the moment when it moves ahead with a green light from its first customer, the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security initiative from the European Union (GMES). EDRS will provide a telecommunications network that is fast, reliable and seamless, making real-time information from satellites available on demand. EDRS will be the first commercially operated data relay...
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a decision that will support thousands of high-tech jobs in the U.S., the board of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) has authorized two transactions aggregating $461 million to underwrite the export of American-made satellites to Hong Kong. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110414/MM83673LOGO) The pair of transactions will support approximately 3,700 U.S. jobs, according to Bank estimates...
NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- SATMEX, a leading provider of fixed satellite services ("FSS"), announced a new brand image, "SATMEX Reaching Higher". SATMEX's exciting future includes the launch of at least two new satellites, Satmex 8 and Satmex 7. This follows a successful financial and operational restructuring including Board and management changes. As part of his keynote comments at SATCON 2012, Patricio Northland, SATMEX's President and CEO stated SATMEX has undergone...
NEW YORK, Nov. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- SATMEX and Hunter Communications announced today a multi-transponder end of life pre-sale agreement for Satmex 7. The new state-of-the-art satellite, currently under construction, is expected to be launched by the first quarter of 2015. Hunter Communications intends to use this capacity for telecommunications services in Canada and the U.S. during the 15-year lifespan of the satellite. In addition, the agreement also provides for the use of Satmex 5...
MELBOURNE, Australia, Nov. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Beam Communications Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of World Reach Limited, announces today the launch of RapidSat700, a portable satellite communications system that operates with the Inmarsat BGAN (Broadband Global Area Network) network. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121113/PH11436) RapidSat700 is a portable "all in one case" for satellite communication deployment in emergency situations, first responder and...
HAWLEY, Pennsylvania, November 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- RRsat America - Global Communications Inc., a subsidiary of RRsat Global Communications Network Ltd. (NASDAQ: RRST), a leading provider of comprehensive digital content management and global content distribution services to the television and radio broadcasting industries, announced today that it has signed a contract with MEASAT Satellite Systems (MEASAT) to launch a new C-band MCPC platform on the...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Scientists wrote in the journal Nature Geoscience that rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels could increase the accumulation of space junk. And as CO2 builds up in the upper levels of Earth's atmosphere it could have a significant effect on satellites in orbit. CO2 cools down the atmosphere and contracts its outermost layer, the thermosphere, which is where satellites and the International Space Station (ISS) operate. A contracted...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online The UK will contribute an additional $95 million (£60 million) in the European Space Agency (ESA) over the next two years, and will be investing more than $475 million (£300 million) in space-science research over the next five years, various media outlets have reported. The funding increases were announced by Chancellor George Osborne on Friday, during which he also announced that the ESA had agreed to allow the UK to once...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The European Space Agency's (ESA) Space Situational Awareness program was spotlighted this week during the ninth European Space Weather Week. The Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program's recent developments in space weather activities were showcased during the conference. As part of SSA, ESA's space weather specialists are focused on developing warning services to help protect satellites and ground infrastructure. These...
John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online In late 2011 the National Research Council released a report stating that the amount of “space junk” orbiting the Earth had reached a tipping point. Since the 1960s, as the United States and others began launching satellites and rockets into space, the region known as Low Earth Orbit (LEO) has become increasingly crowded. The problem has become so significant that, when the Space Shuttle fleet was still operating, NASA...
Latest Satellite Reference Libraries
Satellite -- A satellite is an object that orbits another object. With sufficient tangential velocity, the object does not collide with the primary object it orbits, but maintains a distance from that object as the rate at which it falls towards that object is similar to the rate that it travels away, thus the object orbits the primary object and becomes a satellite. In other words: gravitational force serves as the centripetal force needed to make the object circle the primary...
NEAR-Shoemaker Mission -- The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous - Shoemaker (NEAR Shoemaker), renamed after its launch in honor of Gene Shoemaker, is an unmanned spacecraft designed to study the near-Earth asteroid Eros from close orbit over a period of a year. The primary scientific objectives of NEAR were to return data on the bulk properties, composition, mineralogy, morphology, internal mass distribution and magnetic field of Eros. Secondary objectives include studies of regolith...
Lagrangian Point -- In Lagrangian mechanics, a Lagrangian point (or L-point) is one of five positions in space where the gravitational fields of two bodies of substantial but differing mass combine to form a point at which a third body of negligible mass would be stationary relative to the two bodies. Bodies at the L-point will not move relative to the parent bodies if they are not perturbed by other gravitational forces. They are sometimes also referred to as libration points. The...
Orbit -- An orbit is the path that an object makes around another object under the influence of some force. The classical example is that of the solar system, where the Earth, other planets, asteroids, comets, and smaller pieces of rubble are in orbit around the Sun; and moons are in orbit around planets. These days, many artificial satellites are in orbit around the Earth. Understanding orbits There are a few common ways of understanding orbits. -- As the object moves, it...
