Government/Military

[Via Satellite 10-25-13] Astrium has delivered the proto-flight model (PFM) of the microwave radiometer (MWR), to the prime contractor Thales Alenia Space for installation on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Sentinel 3A environmental monitoring satellite. The MWR is a noise-injection radiometer (NIR) that operates at two frequencies (23.8 and 36.5 GHz). It weighs approximately 25...

[Via Satellite 10-25-13] The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has awarded a contract task order to Riverside Technology, a designer and implementer of integrated scientific, engineering and IT solutions, for the Storm Surge Model Development project. This work, awarded to Riverside under the Scientific, Technical Support Services (Sci-Tech) contract, will be performed by Riverside...

[Via Satellite 10-23-13] NASA has awarded Astrotech Space Operations (ASO) a contract to provide facilities and pre-launch processing services for the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) mission to launch in late 2014 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. DSCOVR is the second mission awarded under the previously announced $9.1 million NASA Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract...

[Via Satellite 10-21-13] Iridium Communications has been boosted by a $400 million, multi-year, fixed-price contract win with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to provide satellite airtime services to meet the communications needs of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and their federal partners. This five-year contract renews the provision for delivering Enhanced Mobile Satellite...

[Via Satellite 10-21-13] After mapping variations in Earth’s gravity with high detail for four years, the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite has run out of fuel and the end of mission has been declared. Since March 2009, the spacecraft orbited the Earth at the lowest altitude of...

Global XpressPhoto: Inmarsat [Via Satellite 10-21-13] L-3 Global Communications Solutions (L-3 GCS), a specialist in the supply of deployable satellite communications solutions and turnkey systems, has received type approval from Inmarsat for its range of military Ka-band terminals, authorizing their use over the Global Xpress (GX) network. This marks an important milestone in the development...

DISA headquarters. Photo: Fort George G. Meade Public Affairs Office [Via Satellite 10-21-13] The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has awarded a $400 million, multi-year, fixed-price contract to Iridium Communications to provide satellite airtime services to meet the communications needs of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and their federal partners. This five-year contract renews...

As the satellite industry pushes to strengthen its ties with government customers, hosted payloads continue to arise as a good win-win business model for private-public partnerships – but there are challenges aplenty. At the “Protecting the Payload: Increased Use Calls for Increased Security” panel at the Hosted Payload Summit 2013 in Washington, D.C., industry experts...

Patrick Wood Photo: Astrium In October 2003, in one of the major deals of its kind in the milsatcom space, the U.K. Ministry of Defense (MoD) signed a multi-billion dollar contract with Paradigm Secure Communications to develop the Skynet 5 program, which now encompasses four dedicated milsatcom satellites. These satellites, which were financed through a...

Despite a slowdown in government spending, milsatcom remains a market of extremes. While it is clear governments around the world are looking for more creative solutions to fill their bandwidth needs, demands for bandwidth continues to increase. So, while the market is proving tough for all players across the value chain, there are still opportunities...