Government/Military

Seakr Engineering has been awarded a contract to define requirements and build digital processing system prototypes for protected satellite communications for the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. Seakr Engineering aims to develop, refine, and test advanced space digital processing prototypes for Protected Tactical Satcom (PTS) anti-jamming capabilities through a contract with the...

After seven months of traveling through space, the NASA InSight mission has landed on Mars. A few minutes after landing, InSight sent the official “beep” to NASA to signal that it was alive and well, including a photo of the Martian surface where it landed. Mission Control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory exploded into celebratory...

United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) Executive Director David Luber sees increasingly dangerous cyber-attacks and believes that greater collaboration between government and industry will be required to counter threats. “It is a team sport now,” said Luber. “We must continue to have these public private sector partnerships as we look to innovate the military space. We need...

The U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) awarded Colorado Springs-based CACI NSS a $63,267,131 fixed-price-incentive firm-target modification contract to upgrade, maintain, and support its consolidated Air Force Satellite Control Network (AFSCN). This is the second option that the U.S. Department of Defense has exercised with CACI as part of a larger $165,067,247...

Hughes Defense Systems has subcontracted GetSAT’s MilliSAT L/W terminal as the beyond line of sight (BLOS) SatCom component for the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Airborne Communications network, supporting Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, Humanitarian Aid, Search and Rescue, and Disaster Relief (DR) Missions. GetSAT’s L/W platforms are designed for airborne and UAV platforms and are available in...

The Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI) announced that the nation’s first satellite — a weather monitoring spacecraft — will be launched next year from anunnamed site in China. ESSTI first announced plans to launch a satellite during its establishment in 2016, and stated that China agreed to contribute $6 million to the total...

Goonhilly Earth Station joined the consortium backing the SmartSat Co-Operative Research Center (CRC), a proposed space research initiative which plans to drive the Australian space industry through satellite technologies and analytics. Led by the University of South Australia (UniSA), Airbus Defense and Space, and Nova Systems (in partnership with the South Australian Space Industry Center), the proposed...

Complexity is the enemy of cybersecurity. Complexity introduces risk in ways that are hard to predict. The more complex a system is, the easier it becomes for adversaries to attack, and the harder it becomes for defenders to defend. In my 30-year career in intelligence and cybersecurity, I have seen some complex enterprises, but I...

On the final day of Global MilSatCom, a number of key speakers from Ministry of Defenses (MODs) and armed forces around the world spoke of their visions regarding milsatcom moving forward. The key theme was that many countries now have a new vision for defense, so speakers elaborated on how satellite plays a role in...

Thales Alenia Space handed over transmission and operation management of Bangabandhu-1 to Bangladesh, and the country will start the commercial activities of the satellite. Bangabandhu-1 is Bangladesh’s first Geostationary Orbit (GEO) communications satellite. A delegation of Thales Alenia Space handed over relevant documents to acting chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Jahurul Haque. Two ground stations —one in...