Government/Military

U.S. commercial X-band provider Xtar won a bandwidth contract to provide 16 MHz of X-band services to Intelsat General from its Xtar-Lant satellite over the Atlantic Ocean, the company announced Nov. 4.     Intelsat General will use the capacity to support military, mobile, manpack terminals prior to deployment and to satisfy U.S. military customer requirements...

[Satellite TODAY 11-09-10] A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 2 rocket has deployed Thales Alenia Space’s Cosmo SkyMed-4 spacecraft into orbit, ULA parent company Boeing announced Nov. 8.     Cosmo SkyMed-4, the final satellite of the end-to-end Earth observation constellation, was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base Nov. 5 and deployed in low-Earth orbit about...

Raytheon has completed a system design review for the U.S. Space Fence program, which will provide enhanced space surveillance capability to the U.S. Air Force to track and detect space objects, Raytheon announced Nov. 2.     The review included the prototyping of critical system elements to demonstrate increased technical and manufacturing readiness levels.     The...

ViaSat’s LinkWayS2 MF-TDMA satellite modem has demonstrated full-mesh, Ka-band satellite communications from the Optus C1 satellite between an Australian Army-deployable Compact Transmit Receive Suite (CTRS) terminal at the Australian Defense Science and Technology Organization (DSTO) and a coms-on-the-move (COTM) terminal located at BAE Systems, ViaSat announced Nov. 1.     This company said the demonstration showcased...

Hughes Network Systems has been selected by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to provide commercial satellite communications under the GSA and U.S. Defense Intelligence Systems Agency’s (DISA) expanded Future ComSatCom Services Acquisition (FCSA) program, the company announced.    Hughes, which joins Artel and CapRock on the program, will provide subscription services and transponder capacity...

Harris Corp. won a $64 million third-year option for its Network and Space Operations and Maintenance (NSOM) program contract with the U.S. Air Force, Harris announced.     The exercised option is based on the initial $416 million NSOM contract signed in January 2008 and will see Harris continue to provide operations and maintenance support to...

Comtech EF Data Corp. won a $3.2 million order from an unnamed U.S. government agency for satellite communications equipment that will be utilized to upgrade fielded satellite terminals for tactical military communications, the company announced.     Comtech will supply MBT-5003 up/down converter systems and SLM-5650A satellite modems. The MBT-5003 systems will provide frequency conversion between...

Harris Corp. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire oil and gas industry service provider Schlumberger’s Global Connectivity Services (GCS) business for $347.5 million in cash after tax expenses, Harris announced Nov. 8.     The acquisition builds on Harris’ acquisition of CapRock Communications in July, as Schlumberger GCS will be combined with CapRock to...

Lockheed Martin’s BSat-3b broadcasting satellite, designed and built for Broadcasting Satellite System (B-Sat) of Japan, was launched by Arianespace on an Ariane 5-ECA launch vehicle, the manufacturer announced.     The satellite, which rode with Eutelsat’s W3B satellite, will be located at 110 degrees East and is scheduled to be handed over to B-Sat by the...

Canadian broadband communications technology developer Norsat unveiled a series of Ku-band block up-converters (BUCs), the company announced.     Norsat’s microwave division added ruggedized, compact 12-, 16-, 20-, 25-, 40-, and 80-Watt BUCs to its satellite terminal component product line designed for Norsat satellite terminals being used for emergency responder and military applications.     In a...