South America News

Brazilian Space Agency Hosts Russia’s Glonass Satellite Navigation System

Brazil has become the first country outside of Russia to host part of the Glonass satellite navigation system. The Brazilian Space Agency and its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, will jointly operate the system, which has been installed at the University of Brasilia. Among other uses, Brazil expects the Glonass system to be used by the host university to conduct aerospace and biomedical research.

The agreement signed establishes technical cooperation for Glonass as well as support for research studies on satellite navigation systems, and contribute to the training of personnel with technical expertise in this system.
 

Hispasat Sends Latin America’s First Ka-band Payload into Orbit

Arianespace successfully carried out its 54th Ariane 5 launch in a row, orbiting the Amazonas-3 for Spanish operator Hispasat and Azerspace/Africasat-1a for the Azerbaijani operator Azercosmos.

Arianespace’s 68th launch of Ariane 5 was also its first of 2013. The mission set a new record for weight injected into geostationary transfer orbit: the launcher on this mission carried a total payload of 10,317 kilograms, including 9,503 kilograms for the two satellites, Amazonas-3 and Azerspace/Africasat-1a. Amazonas-3 is the seventh Spanish satellite launched by Arianespace.