Government/Military

Leading up to 2009, there were lofty visions about what satellite communications would provide for the U.S. government: The Air Force’s Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT) was underway, with the promise to launch an “internet in the sky” serving the Department of Defense (DOD), NASA and the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). TSAT was envisioned as...

The U.S. Department of Commerce, which the Trump administration recently tapped to replace the Department of Defense (DOD) in providing space object tracking information to industry, expects to finish taking over its new role in about a year, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said June 22. The Commerce Department plans to send “initial delegations” to Vandenberg...

SpaceX has secured a $130 million firm-fixed-price contract from the U.S. Air Force for launch services to deliver the Air Force Space Command-52 (AFSPC-52) satellite using it’s Falcon Heavy rocket. This launch service contract will include launch vehicle production and mission, as well as integration, launch operations and spaceflight worthiness activities. According to the U.S....

Northrop Grumman has successfully powered up the two main parts of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, signaling a milestone event in the test and integration phase of the program. The telescope’s Optical Telescope element/Integrated Science (OTIS) instrument module and Spacecraft Element (SCE), which includes the sunshield and spacecraft bus, were separately powered at Northrop Grumman’s...

President Trump announced June 18 that he has told the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to start forming a space force to ensure U.S. space dominance, but a key lawmaker insisted that DOD cannot proceed without congressional approval. “Very importantly, I’m hereby directing the Department of Defense and Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary...

The European Commission (EC), seeking to assert more control over European space policy, regulation and governance, has published a proposal for a regulation establishing the EU space program and the EU Agency for the Space Program. EU Space Program This column has often made the case that the space industry has the potential to stimulate...

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions will develop a proof of concept system to enable satellite communication roaming capability for the U.S. government, under a $2.6 million contract. The system will increase capacity, resilience and responsiveness of the wideband satcom network and will enable users to roam, in a similar way to cellphone users, across multiple...

In the wake of the hurricanes in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands last year, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is making available hundreds of millions of dollars in universal service funding to help restore and expand voice and broadband communications over the next decade to millions of residents. For this, the FCC should...

Harris Corporation has delivered an environmental monitoring sensor for the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite-2 (GOSAT-2), which will significantly enhance Japan’s ability to monitor greenhouse gases from space. The Harris-built Thermal and Near Infrared Sensor for Carbon Observation-Fourier Transform Spectrometer-2 (TANSO-FTS-2) will measure greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The newly built instrument will collect high-spectral resolution...

Geospatial analytics provider Orbital Insight has signed an exclusive agreement to bundle its products with the Emergency Flood Mapping Services of e-Geos for the U.S. government. This partnership provides government customers with a timely understanding of both full flood extent, extracted from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data, and the magnitude of the impact, based...