Orbcomm, a Satellite Data Communications Company, announced that the Luxembourg-based LuxSpace Sarl, an affiliate of OHB System, has confirmed that construction and testing of the LuxSpace VesselSat2 AIS satellite has been successful.
The VesselSat2 maritime-tracking satellite, which will be used to supplement the planned constellation of Automatic Identification System (AIS) satellites, has been shipped to the China Great Wall Industry Corporation’s Tiayuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC) in the Ganso Province of the People’s Republic of China. The 29-kilogram microsatellite will be lofted into polar orbit aboard a Chang Zheng rocket lifting off from China’s Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The target launch date for VesselSat2 is scheduled for 10 January 2012. The two VesselSat craft will supplement a constellation of 18 next-generation, AIS-enabled Orbcomm satellites now under construction.
[mappress] World Maritime News Staff, December 28, 2011; Image: LuxSpace Sarl