Government/Military

As satellite companies writ large increasingly consider how to interoperate with terrestrial connectivity options, Hughes is bringing this mindset to its customers in the public sector. The company recently secured a contract to support the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s telecommunications network (COPANET), for which it will combine fiber, wireless and satellite broadband technologies to provide managed...

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded SES a $24.8 million multi-year contract, under which the company will provide the United States Africa Command (U.S. AFRICOM) with high throughput, low-latency managed satellite communications services in the areas of their operations. SES will use its O3B fleet in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) to deliver secure...

U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest salvo attempting to punish China for intellectual property theft saw the levying a 25% tariff on some 1,300 items, including a host of satellite items. The proposed tariffs, which amount to $12.5 billion on $50 billion in goods, would go into effect no sooner than June. Among the targeted products are...

Although the relationship between North Korea and South Korea has seen relative improvements in recent months, a new satellite launch could ruin upcoming talks between the country and the U.S. A Sejong Institute analyst predicts North Korea may launch a new satellite to celebrate its 70th anniversary this September — potentially triggering another round of...

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has awarded Leidos a task order to develop the seventh generation Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite used for the FAA Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). The task order has a four-year development phase, and one 10-year operations and maintenance phase with a total contract value of approximately $117 million. WAAS...

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has selected SSL to design and build critical equipment for a spacecraft that will explore Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. The Europa Clipper spacecraft, set to launch in the 2020s, will perform repeated investigative flybys of Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter, which strong evidence suggests has an ocean of liquid...

When it comes to U.S. commercial, civil and military satellite communication services, three seemingly interrelated areas — innovation, spectrum certainty, and sustainable space operations — are critical to the industry’s future. At the recent National Space Council (NSC) meeting chaired by Vice President Mike Pence at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, I was honored...

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) confirmed over the weekend that it has lost communications with the recently orbited GSAT 6A communications satellite. ISRO launched the satellite on March 29 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota. On Sunday, ISRO reported it lost contact with the satellite shortly after carrying out the second orbit...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) successfully activated two instruments built by Northrop Grumman on its newest weather satellite, which is performing post-launch procedures nominally after reaching orbit. The instruments are the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS), a cross-track microwave sounder, and the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) FM-6. United Launch...

NW of Tahiti – it managed to miss the 'spacecraft graveyard' which is further south! pic.twitter.com/Sj4e42O7Dc — Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) April 2, 2018 China’s first human space station, Tiangong 1, finally fell back to Earth over the weekend, landing harmlessly somewhere over the southern Pacific Ocean. Although experts were unsure where the 18,740 lb. station...