Galileo is back on track - On Friday 27, the launch of satellites 7 and 8

Last week, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that two more satellites for Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation will be launched on 27 March 2015. Galileo satellites 7 and 8 are scheduled to lift off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on top of a Soyuz rocket and they are expected to become operational by mid-2015. This launch, scheduled for late last year, was delayed due to the Soyuz launch anomaly of Galileo satellites 5 and 6 which took place in August 2014.

U.S. GAO rejects Sierra Nevada’s protest over NASA $6.8 billion space contracts

On January 5, 2015, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), rejected a protest filed by the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) over a NASA contract award to SpaceX and Boeing, to develop crew transportation vehicles to the International Space Station (ISS), under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) Program.

AWST reveals selection criteria for CCtCap

The aerospace magazine Aviation Week and Space Technology (AWST) reports that an internal document by William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s Associate Administrator, sheds light to the selection criteria that NASA used to award to Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) contracts on Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap), in order to transport NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) as of 2017. The main criteria were the maturity of concepts proposed and the degree of risk to schedule.

Independent Enquiry Board announces causes for failed Galileo Launch

Last week, the Independent Inquiry Board (“the Board”), entrusted with the task to examine the exact causes that led to the orbital injection anomaly of Galileo satellites 5 and 6 on August 22, announced its definite conclusions. The Board reported that the anomaly occurred during the flight of the launcher’s fourth stage, the Fregat. Its main cause was a deficiency in the system thermal analysis performed during the design stage.