Government/Military

[Via Satellite 05-12-2015] Harris Corporation has successfully completed the final two tests of the ground segment of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‘s (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite – R Series (GOES-R). The ground system is now ready for use by NOAA as it prepares for the GOES-R satellite launch in March 2016, with Harris...

[Via Satellite 05-11-2015] The European Space Agency (ESA) and Airbus Defence and Space have signed a 177 million euros development and production contract for the Jason CS/Sentinel 6 satellite. Jason CS/Sentinel 6 is a mission to carry out high-precision measurements of ocean surface topography. The implementation of the second satellite will follow the approval of...

[Via Satellite 05-11-2015] Aydin Yazilim ve Elektronik San. A.S. (AYESAS) of Turkey and ViaSat signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to cover exploration of and cooperation in identifying Tactical Data Link (TDL) products and services opportunities in Turkey and other international markets. The MOU areas of focus include manufacturing of components, software and hardware development...

[Via Satellite 04-30-2015] The United States Air Force wants to compete as many as nine national security launches between this year and 2017, and another 25 between 2018 to 2022, according to officials’ testimonies during an April 29 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on military space programs. With confidence that SpaceX’s certification of the Falcon...

[Via Satellite 04-29-2015] Human Rights Watch is calling on Turkmenistan to cease from forcing residents to remove privately owned satellite dishes. The independent Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) reports that around the end of March 2015, local housing authorities in the capital city of Ashgabat and its suburbs began ordering residents of multistory apartment buildings to remove...

[Via Satellite 04-28-2015] Ball Aerospace has integrated four out of five instruments for the Joint Polar Satellite System 1 (JPSS), under contract from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The company has integrated the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrlS), Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite-Nadir (OMPS-N), and Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant...

[Via Satellite 04-27-2015] Airbus Defence and Space has been awarded a contract to build a joint Earth observation satellite for the French space agency (CNES) and the German space agency (DLR) for the study of methane concentrations in Earth’s atmosphere. The Methane Remote Sensing Lidar Mission (MERLIN) satellite will be designed using the new AstroBus-S...

[Via Satellite 04-23-2015] Following a $103 million contract from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems has awarded a 14-year contract to SES Government Solutions (SES GS) to host a payload on the upcoming SES 15 satellite. Raytheon’s FAA contract funds a Wide Area Augmentation Systems (WAAS) hosted payload, which enhances the...

[Via Satellite 04-22-2015] The United States Air Force has combined the Infrared Space Systems and the Defense Weather Systems directorates into a single unit. The new Remote Sensing System Directorate is responsible for both the Air Force’s Overhead Persistent Infrared mission area, which gives missile warning, missile defense, battle-space awareness, technical intelligence, and civil support...

[Via Satellite 04-22-2015] Comtech Telecommunications’ subsidiary Comtech EF Data received an order from the U.S. government worth $1.3 million for satellite modems. The contract calls specifically for the SLM-5650A satellite modem for use in a government network. The SLM-5650A modem supports data rates from 8 kbps to 155 Mbps and symbol rates from 32 ksps...