Government/Military

[Satellite News 02-24-12] Thales Alenia Space has won the largest satellite construction contract in history to produce six Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellites for the European meteorological satellite organization (Eumetsat), the company confirmed Feb. 24.    The European Space Agency (ESA) is paying 62 percent of the total $1.8 billion value after adjusting for inflation...

[Satellite TODAY 02-23-12] Orbital Sciences beat analysts’ 2011 fourth quarter earnings consensus backed by impressive orders and year-over-year backlog growth, the company announced as part of its Feb. 22 fiscal results.    Despite the growth, Orbital experienced unexpected weakness in its launch segment due to budgetary headwinds with customers and delays in the launch of...

[Satellite TODAY Insider 02-22-12] The United States government has extended its Future Commercial Satellite Communications Services Acquisition (FCSA) program to include four Custom Satellite Communications Solutions–Small Business (CS2-SB) contracts for small businesses.     The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) announced Feb. 21 that the CS2-SB program would...

[Satellite TODAY 02-22-12] The Indian Department of Space has requested that the Indian government reserve part of its spectrum in the 2.5 GHz frequency band for providing satellite services, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced Feb. 21.    The spectrum is currently being used for wireless broadband services. Indian space officials want the government...

[Satellite TODAY Insider 02-20-12] Switzerland confirmed its plans to spend approximately $10.8 million for the design and development of a new line of satellites that would clean up orbital debris and space junk left behind by previous artificial satellites and space probes.    Swiss Space Center Director Volker Gass announced Feb. 17 that the Clean...

[Satellite TODAY 02-20-12] The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has suspended Landsat 5 Earth-imaging operations for an additional 90 days while its Flight Operations Team (FOT) continues to investigate other options for imaging, USGS announced Feb. 17.    The Landsat program is a series of Earth observing satellite missions jointly managed by the USGS and NASA....

[Satellite TODAY 02-15-12] Unclassified U.S. military space program and activity funding is set to decline 22 percent year-over-year to $8 billion under the U.S. Department of Defense’s 2013 spending request, the White House announced Feb. 13.    The Pentagon said the spending cuts were driven by reduced procurement plans for satellites and launch vehicles, along...

[Satellite TODAY 02-15-12] Satellite communications infrastructure, solutions, and teleport services provider UltiSat has been awarded a U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) contract under its Custom Satcom Solutions/Small Business (CS2-SB) program, UltiSat announced Feb. 14.    The CS2-SB is a three-year indefinite delivery/indefinite quality contract that will allow UltiSat to provide emergency response and disaster recovery...

Raytheon is tripling its available satellite capacity for all AN/ARC-231 airborne radio terminals at no cost to the end-user, the company announced Feb. 9. The enhancement is being provided by an upgrade to its Integrated Waveform (IW) software, following successful field tests hosted by the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). The company said that the radio...

[Satellite TODAY Insider 02-14-12] Arianespace has successfully launched the European Space Agency’s (ESA) first Vega rocket, which placed two scientific research satellites and seven picosatellites into orbit, ESA and Arianespace confirmed Feb. 13.    The Vega light-lift rocket was launched from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Among its payloads, the rocket placed Hungary’s...