Earth watcher Proba-V is in good health following its launch last week. The Vegetation imager has been switched on and the first image has been captured over western France. The miniature satellite is designed to map land cover and vegetation growth across the entire planet every two days. The data can be used for alerting authorities to crop failures or monitoring the spread of deserts and deforestation. The satellite’s vegetation imager was switched on Wednesday in time to get...

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -  Boeing [NYSE: BA] has a new satellite customer under a contract to design and deliver one Boeing 702HP high-power spacecraft to ViaSat Inc. [NASDAQ: VSAT] in 2016. The satellite, ViaSat-2, will provide high-speed satellite broadband services to subscribers of the ViaSat Exede® Internet service, as well as address its growing mobile broadband businesses. The companies also will cooperatively offer the system to other satellite providers. Contract value is not being disclosed. "...

LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -  A U.S. Air Force Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite built by Boeing was successfully launched May 15. The fourth GPS IIF satellite, Space Vehicle Number (SVN) 66, was carried aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V Launch Vehicle at 5:38 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The new capabilities of the IIF satellites will provide greater navigational accuracy through improvements in atomic clock technology; a more robust signal for commercial aviation and safety-of-l...

NASA's first mission to sample an asteroid is moving ahead into development and testing in preparation for its launch in 2016. The Origins-Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) passed a confirmation review Wednesday called Key Decision Point (KDP)-C. NASA officials reviewed a series of detailed project assessments and authorized the spacecraft's continuation into the development phase. OSIRIS-REx will rendezvous with the astero...

CARLSBAD, Calif. -  ViaSat (NASDAQ: VSAT) has executed a contract with Boeing (NYSE: BA) to build ViaSat-2, which is based on ViaSat's next generation, Ka-band satellite technology and architecture. ViaSat-2 is expected to be, by far, the world's highest capacity satellite at the time of launch (scheduled for mid-2016) achieving an unparalleled mix of capacity and coverage. ViaSat-2 is anticipated to approximately double the bandwidth economics of ViaSat-1 while simultaneously increasing its coverage foo...