SINGAPORE — Satellite manufactures are responding to the challenge of tight fiscal budgets by adopting new business models, such as public-private partnerships, and looking further afield for partners.

GO-3S is the company’s new geostationary Earth observation satellite

Falcon 9/Dragon launch pad 'hot fire' test took place Feb. 25

Orbital Sciences Corp. hopes to launch its new Antares rocket on its first flight at the end of March or early in April, following a successful 29-sec. hot-fire test on its new launch pad at Wallops Flight Facility, Va. Orbital engineers believe they have dealt with a fairing-separation issue that cost NASA two Earth-observing satellites in back-to-back launch failures on the company’s Taurus XL rocket, and don’t expect similar problems with the frangible-joint separation mechanism on the much larger Antares fairing.

Include Indo-French “Saral” ocean-monitoring satellite

The Sept. 12 abort occurred about a minute before planned departure

A new mission directorate at NASA headquarters, set up to give more emphasis to technology development for a wide range of potential missions, will be able to push technology readiness level (TRL) more efficiently than mission-oriented work, according to the engineer selected to head the new organization.

As if further evidence of its resolving power was needed, NASA’s Kepler planet finder has located a planet circling a star similar to the Sun that is only slightly larger than the Moon. Called Kepler-37b, it is the smallest planet yet observed, smaller than any in the Solar System and one of three circling a star about 210 light years from Earth. None are bigger than Mercury, all orbit their star, Kepler-37, closer than Mercury does to the Sun and all are outside the habitable zone where liquid water might support life.