Government/Military

Thales Alenia Space and Thales have signed a contract with The French defense procurement agency DGA to carry out a concept study concerning intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) applications using a Stratobus type platform to meet French army operational needs.  The contract’s purpose is to study the benefits of continuous stratospheric platforms to improve and...

Get SAT and Inmarsat have demonstrated and deployed a Dual SAT terminal solution for U.S. government agencies, the companies announced on Monday. The solution employs Get SAT’s micronized Milli SAT LM terminals using Inmarsat’s Global Xpress Ka-band network. According to the companies, this solution is meant to reduce installation costs and manage communications-on-the-move. Dual SAT is...

The 14th Air Force – previously the Air Force component to U.S. Strategic Command for space operations – last month was redesignated as the Space Operations Command (SPOC) under the nascent U.S. Space Force. The SPOC will provide space capabilities including space domain awareness, space electronic warfare, satellite communications and missile warning for U.S. Space...

Mission operators at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have lost contact with the Asteria CubeSat, which studies planets outside our solar system. The last successful communication with Asteria was on Dec. 5. Attempts to contact it are expected to continue into March 2020. When Asteria was deployed into Earth orbit from the space...

Defense contractor Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) will develop and build the State of Israel’s national communications satellite, “Dror 1,” the company announced on Thursday. Dror 1 built by the state-owned company is intended to meet the country’s satellite communication needs for 15 years once operational. While no financial details were disclosed, development of the government-funded...

Mozambique’s National Institute of Meteorology (INAM) has begun using a satellite system provided by China, according to Xinhua. INAM announced on Friday that the new system will allow for more accurate predictions on weather, climate change, and potential natural disasters.  “We will have a system that allows the country to monitor tropical cyclones, something the...

In 2018, natural disasters claimed 10,400 lives and caused $160 billion worth of damage, according to German reinsurer Munich Re. That’s down from $350 billion and 13,000 lives lost in 2017. With climate change accelerating at a terrifying pace, the numbers are likely to surge upward again. Given a disaster response “market” of that size,...

Elon Musk tweeted a simulation of what a crewed flight to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s Dragon will look like, forecasting a crewed flight during 2020.  “Crew Dragon should be physically ready & at the Cape in Feb, but completing all safety reviews will probably take a few more months,” Musk tweeted on Dec....

L3Harris Technologies has been awarded a $100 million maximum U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) satellite contract to support U.S. Special Operations Command, DoD announced on Dec. 23.  The contract is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm fixed price contract with a three-year base period and two one-year option periods for a maximum ordering period of five years for...

President Trump signed the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Dec. 20, officially standing up the Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces under the Air Force. “America’s superiority in space is absolutely vital and we’re leading, but we’re not leading by enough,” Trump said Friday evening at a...