Tag: SSTL
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Experimental British satellite tests harpoon in orbit
A British satellite released from the International Space Station last year has successfully demonstrated a harpoon that could be used on future missions to clean up space debris, officials announced Friday. The harpoon fired out of the RemoveDebris spacecraft Feb. 8, striking a target plate extended from the satellite on a 4.9-foot (1.5-meter) boom. The…
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German-British consortium wins deal to build eight more Galileo satellites
Artist’s illustration of Galileo navigation satellites in orbit. Credit: OHB Eight more satellites for Europe’s Galileo navigation fleet will be built by Germany’s OHB System AG and Britain’s Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. under a contract worth more than $350 million. The European Space Agency and the European Commission selected the same German-British industrial team that…
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European engineers studying string of clock failures on Galileo navigation satellites
Artist’s concept of a Galileo satellite. Credit: OHB A wave of clock failures on Europe’s Galileo navigation satellites has not knocked any of the craft offline, but officials want to better understand the problem before launching more satellites into the fleet. Five of the 18 Galileo navigation craft currently in orbit have encountered clock anomalies,…
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Hydraulic pump glitch scrubs Pegasus launch
Updated at 7:30 p.m. EST (0030 GMT). A camera on-board the L-1011 carrier plane shows the aft end of the Pegasus XL rocket in flight over the Atlantic Ocean Monday. Credit: NASA TV Trouble with a hydraulic pump needed to release Orbital ATK’s air-launched Pegasus XL rocket from its carrier jet Monday has delayed the…
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UK’s TechDemoSat-1 to ride uphill on Russian Soyuz
An innovative UK satellite has been confirmed for a late 2013 launch on a Soyuz rocket. Led by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), TechDemoSat-1 (TDS-1) is an impressive box of tricks that will carry eight experimental payloads into space, including the ability to end its own life at the end of its technology demonstration mission.…