Government/Military

[Satellite TODAY 05-31-12] Proteus has entered into a partnership with DigitalGlobe to provide bathymetric and seabed-mapping products derived from DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 satellite imagery, the companies announced May 30.    Proteus said the seabed surveys would be developed for environmental, oil and gas, marine biology and other coastal zone applications.    “The Proteus-DigitalGlobe relationship enables us...

[Satellite TODAY 05-31-12] ASC Signal unveiled a new 2.4-meter nomadic antenna that aims to incorporate its advanced mobile features in a compact unit for rapid deployment, the company announced May 30.    ASC also confirmed that it has already delivered several of the new units to customers for initial testing. The ASC Signal lightweight, carbon-fiber...

[Satellite TODAY 05-30-12]  Cambridge Consultants and Iridium Communications have successfully completed initial trials of key new components of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Distributed Tactical Communications System (DTCS), a major push-to-talk (PTT) radio system. Iridium confirmed the successful trials May 29.        DTCS enables soldiers in isolated areas to communicate without the need for...

[Satellite TODAY 05-29-12] Boeing completed the software Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for its Commercial Crew Development (CCDev-2) initiative, as part of NASA’s Space Act Agreement last week, the company announced May 24.        The PDR team analyzed the system’s flight software, including details regarding safety, testing, overall redundancy management, avionics hardware and ground systems.

[Satellite TODAY 05-29-12] Lockheed Martin has received the core structure for the U.S. Air Force’s fourth Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) geosynchronous satellite (GEO-4), the company announced May 24.             The structure was delivered to Lockheed Martin’s Mississippi Space and Technology Center, where engineers and technicians will integrate the spacecraft’s propulsion subsystem.             “Delivery of...

[Satellite TODAY 05-29-12] The Dragon spacecraft has been successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS), SpaceX announced May 25. This comes three days after the successful launch of the Dragon spacecraft on the Falcon 9 rocket.        The ISS Expedition 31 crew successfully captured the SpaceX Dragon capsule with the station’s robotic arm at...

[Satellite TODAY Insider 05-24-11] After the drama of the aborted launch of the Falcon 9 May 19, SpaceX successfully launched the Falcon 9 May 22, carrying the Dragon spacecraft towards the International Space Station. Now the company has signed its first deal for the Falcon Heavy vehicle and is set to announce it later this...

[Satellite News 05-25-12] In the first part of this two-part interview Col. Michael Lakos, Chief, Global Mission Support Division of the U.S. Air Force, spoke about the Air Force’s perspective on hosted payloads, and what could possibly happen in the near future regarding executing these types of deals. In the second part of the interview,...

[Satellite News 05-24-12] While hosted payload-type deals have been relatively few and far between in the industry, there is hope that there may be some more highly innovative ones coming up. All eyes will be on the United States, and whether it decides to do more of these types of deals. In a two-part interview,...

[Satellite TODAY 05-23-11]  SpaceX has successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon spacecraft to orbit. The company, which had to dramatically abort the mission at the last second May 19, finally completed the mission May 22.       John Holdren, assistant to the president for science and technology, said in a statement, “Every launch...