Iran set to launch imaging satellite

TEHRAN (BNS): Iran will launch a satellite with imaging capabilities by the end of this year, Iranian Telecommunications Minister Reza Taqipour has said.

“We are preparing the Rassad 1 (Observation) satellite for launch” by the end of 2010, IRIB quoted Taqipour as saying on Sunday.

According to a Press TV report, Iran needed to carry out further experiments on the second domestically-made satellite for the exact blast off time before March 2011.

Taqipour was also quoted saying that further additional information will be made public after pre-launch tests have been carried out and all systems including “the launch base, the carrier, ground navigation and control of the orbiter gear up for lift off.”

Iran will use the Rassad 1 satellite to transmit images of the earth and for meteorological purposes, the report said.

In 2009, the country launched its first homegrown research satellite. Iranian scientists were on schedule to launch the country's first manned mission to space in 2017, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.

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China says manned space station possible around 2020

China says manned space station possible around 2020

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BEIJING — China said Wednesday that it planned to complete a manned space station around 2020, as the Asian nation pushes ahead with its ambitious space exploration programme.

China's Manned Space Engineering Project announced in a statement that it expected to launch a space laboratory before 2016 to study key technology involved in a space station, such as living conditions for astronauts.

The country would then develop and launch a core cabin and a second laboratory module around 2020, which would be assembled in orbit into a space station, it added.

The station would study technologies involved in long-term manned space flights, the statement said.

China had already announced plans to launch two unmanned modules next year, which are expected to undergo the nation's first space docking -- an essential step towards building the space station.

These steps are all part of the nation's ambitious space exploration programme, which experts say it wants to put on a par with those of the United States and Russia.

China sees the programme as a symbol of its global stature, growing technical expertise, and the Communist Party's success in turning around the fortunes of the formerly poverty-stricken nation.

The nation became only the third in the world to put a man in space independently -- after the United States and Russia -- when Yang Liwei piloted the one-man Shenzhou-5 space mission in 2003.

And in September 2008, the Shenzhou-7, piloted by three astronauts, carried out China's first space walk.

China has also made strides in lunar exploration, aiming to become the second country to put a man on the moon.

It launched its second lunar probe on October 1, hopes to bring a moon rock sample back to Earth in 2017, and has planned a manned mission to the moon for around 2020, according to state media.

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Boeing wins $1 billion Mexican secure communication satellite contract

Our Bureau

Tue, Dec 21, 2010 14:55 CET

      Boeing today announced that it has received a contract for approximately $1 billion from the government of Mexico to deliver an end-to-end satellite communications system. The system, known as MEXSAT, will consist of three satellites, two ground sites, associated network operations systems and reference user terminals. MEXSAT will provide secure communications for Mexico's national security needs, as well as enhanced coverage for the country's civil telecommunications.

      "MEXSAT is the fourth generation of satellites Boeing has provided to Mexico for government and civilian satellite communications," said Craig Cooning, chief executive officer of Boeing Satellite Systems International.

      Under the contract, Boeing will deliver a complete turnkey satellite system comprised of Boeing 702HP geomobile satellites MEXSAT-1 and MEXSAT-2 and one extended C- and Ku-band satellite, MEXSAT-3, which will provide fixed satellite services from geosynchronous orbit. MEXSAT-3 is scheduled to launch first, at the end of 2012.

      Each Boeing 702HP satellite will supply 14 kilowatts of power through five-panel solar array wings that use high-efficiency, ultra triple-junction gallium arsenide solar cells. Both satellites will carry a 22-meter L-band reflector for mobile satellite services, complemented by a 2-meter Ku-band antenna.

      Boeing will procure MEXSAT-3 and a spacecraft operations center from its supplier partner Orbital Sciences Corporation MEXSAT-3, an Orbital Star 2.4 satellite, will provide full coverage of Mexico and its patrimonial seas and relay civil communications for socioeconomic development.

      Boeing also will develop two ground sites in Mexico with advanced beam-forming flexibility to direct mobile user spot beams to government agencies operating in Mexico and its patrimonial seas, including the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.

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Military Reconnaissance Satellite Launched by China

A Long March 4C carrier rocket carrying a remote-sensing satellite, "Yaogan IX", blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province. (photo : Xinhua)

China successfully launched another Earth observation satellite from the Jiuquan space base Friday, according to state-run media outlets.

The Yaogan 9 spacecraft blasted off from Jiuquan on a Long March 4C rocket at 0455 GMT (11:55 p.m. EST Thursday), or 12:55 p.m. local time. The three-stage rocket successfully delivered the secret payload to orbit, the state-owned Xinhua news agency reported.


The Jiuquan launch site is located in the Gobi desert near the border between China's Gansu and Inner Mongolia provinces. Jiuquan has hosted the launches of all three Chinese human spaceflights to date.

Yaogan 9 is the newest member of a series of satellites believed to harbor optical and radar military reconnaissance capabilities.

The satellite "would be used to conduct scientific experiment[s], carry out surveys on land resources, forecast grain output and help with natural disaster-reduction and prevention endeavor[s]," state media reports said.

But most experts believe the Yaogan series includes two variants with high-resolution electro-optical cameras and cloud-piercing radars designed to see targets through inclement weather or darkness.

In the past, optical Yaogan satellites launched from Jiuquan and radar-equipped spacecraft were shot into orbit from the Taiyuan space center in northern China's Shanxi province.

Before Friday's mission, analysts believed China had orbited three electro-optical Yaogan satellites and five radar payloads.

Previous Yaogan launches from Jiuquan used the less powerful Long March 2D booster. The Long March 4C launched Friday includes a restartable third stage to increase payload performance. Chinese officials did not address the change in rocket, but the more powerful launcher could indicate the mission carried an upgraded Yaogan satellite.

Official Chinese media did not announce the launch until Thursday, a typical communications procedure for closely-guarded military space missions.
Friday's launch was the second orbital flight of Chinese rockets this year, and it marked the ninth space launch to reach orbit worldwide so far in 2010.

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Iran set to launch imaging satellite

TEHRAN (BNS): Iran will launch a satellite with imaging capabilities by the end of this year, Iranian Telecommunications Minister Reza Taqipour has said.

“We are preparing the Rassad 1 (Observation) satellite for launch” by the end of 2010, IRIB quoted Taqipour as saying on Sunday.

According to a Press TV report, Iran needed to carry out further experiments on the second domestically-made satellite for the exact blast off time before March 2011.

Taqipour was also quoted saying that further additional information will be made public after pre-launch tests have been carried out and all systems including “the launch base, the carrier, ground navigation and control of the orbiter gear up for lift off.”

Iran will use the Rassad 1 satellite to transmit images of the earth and for meteorological purposes, the report said.

In 2009, the country launched its first homegrown research satellite. Iranian scientists were on schedule to launch the country's first manned mission to space in 2017, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.

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Space Satellite navigation deal Signed Between Russia And Barat

MOSCOW: Indian and Russian companies signed a deal that will see Indian buses guided by a Russian satellite navigation system, the news agency Interfax reported on Saturday.
India's HBL Power Systems and Russia's Navigation Information Systems ( NIS) agreed on the Russian programme, based on the Glonass and GPS satellite systems.
They are to be delivered to HBL at a date still to be specified.

Indian buses will also be equipped with automatic control technology, and means of programming and changing set routes and analysing efficiency.

The Glonass system, operated by the Russian defence ministry, was developed in the eighties by the Soviet army to compete with the GPS satellite navigation system used by the United States.

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