Government/Military

[Via Satellite 05-07-2014] Lockheed Martin received two large modules for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES R) at its cleanroom near Denver, Colo. The satellite is now ready to go through the integration and testing phase of development to keep it on track for an early 2016 launch. “The...

[Via Satellite 05-06-2014] Lockheed Martin completed an analysis of the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellites during the U.S. Navy’s 2014 Ice Exercise (ICEX), and showed that the satellites provided almost 150 hours of secure data connections. This exercise marked the first time military personnel could transfer large data files over satellite connections in the...

[Via Satellite 05-05-2014] NASA has signed an agreement with the French Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) to build, launch and control the world’s first global spacecraft for the purpose of surveying Earth’s surface water and mapping ocean surface height. NASA’s Administrator Charles Bolden and CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall signed the agreement on Friday, May...

Much of the satellite communications (satcom) capability the United States military uses today is provided by commercial satellites. The U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) reports that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) currently spends around $1 billion every year for this capability. While much of DoD’s needs are met with this commercial satellite communications...

The United States military is seeking to curtail its spending, but its need for greater bandwidth is increasing, not unlike the commercial sector. SES Government Solutions provides commercial satellite services to the United States through a constellation of 56 geostationary satellites. At the helm is President and CEO Tip Osterthaler, who retired in 1997 from...

[Via Satellite 05-02-2014] Neptec Design Group received a $1.35 million add-on contract from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to continue work on Canada’s contribution to Astro H, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) next­generation space observatory. CSA is developing Astro H’s meteorology system (CAMS), which will improve the calibration of Astro H’s main telescope. Neptec started its work on CAMS...

[Via Satellite 05-01-2014] The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has granted five contracts to the Canadian industry to perform studies on five potential microsatellite missions. The missions would address needs in security, health, forest fire surveillance, weather surveillance and water quality monitoring. The studies would determine whether the mission concepts are possible and suitable for microsatellite...

[Via Satellite 04-30-2014] Ball Aerospace celebrated the eighth anniversary of its on-orbit operations for the CloudSat spacecraft and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) Earth science satellite. Ball designed and manufactured the CloudSat bus and the CALIPSO instrument, which launched in late April of 2006 to join the “A-Train” constellation. Ball was under...

[Via Satellite 04-29-2014] Ultra Electronics AEP has signed an agreement with Thuraya Telecommunications to offer an end-to-end solution involving the communicate and encrypt range of solutions Ultra Electronics AEP offers to end users in the government. This solution is incorporated within communicate and offers agnostic, seamless switching between Thuraya’s satellite and terrestrial networks and includes...

[Via Satellite 04-29-2014] United Launch Alliance (ULA) released a statement addressing the SpaceX suit against the U.S. Air Force’s block buy of 36 cores from ULA for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Program (EELV). In the statement, the company reinforced the position that, “The recent five-year block buy contract was the result of a best...