Government/Military

[Satellite News 07-23-10] Comtech CEO Fred Kornberg said his company plans to file an appeal with the U.S. Government Accountability Office over the U.S. Army’s Blue Force Tracking 2 (BFT-2) contract award to ViaSat, announced July 22.      “Given our proven performance during a war-time environment, the performance capability of our BFT-HC transceiver and our...

[Satellite TODAY 07-22-10]  Canadian satellite company MDA has been awarded a contract to provide four advanced technology solutions to EADS Astrium for integration on Astra satellites, MDA announced July 21.     The contract, worth more than $12.5 million, will see MDA provide support technology for satellites that Astrium is building for SES. The satellites are...

[Satellite TODAY 07-22-10]  NASA has awarded ASRC Management Services its Multi-Disciplinary Engineering and Technology Services 2 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to provide a variety of support services for the agency’s spaceflight and ground system hardware and software, NASA announced July 21.     ASRC will provide formulation, design, development, flight and non-flight fabrication, integration, testing, verification...

[Satellite TODAY 07-22-10] The U.S. Army selected ViaSat as the winner of the Blue Force Tracking 2 (BFT-2) program contract over Comtech Mobile Datacom, the competitors announced in separate statements issued July 21.     ViaSat said it was awarded $477 million under the BFT-2 indefinite-delivery, indefinite contract and received the first delivery order for $37.7...

[Satellite News 07-21-10] Comtech Mobile Datacom expects the U.S. Army to announce its multi-year $200 million Blue Force Tracking 2 (BFT2) contract winner by end of the month, and one analyst said the Army’s moves indicate that Comtech is the favorite to capture the award.     “We expect the Army’s decision by the end of...

[Satellite TODAY 07-21-10] The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded Harris Corp. a 10-year, $130 million contract to supply antennas and control systems for NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite Series-R (GOES-R) program, Harris announced July 20.     Harris will work with contract teammates General Dynamics Satcom Technologies and ARES to deploy the GOES-R...

[Satellite TODAY 07-21-10] Comtech Mobile Datacom expects the U.S. Army’s multi-year Blue Force Tracking 2 (BFT2) contract, valued at more than $200 million, to be awarded by the end of July, Comtech’s Blue Force Tracking Program Manager Richard Leach told Satellite News.     Raymond James analyst Chris Quilty told Satellite News he has been convinced...

[Satellite TODAY 07-21-10] The U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee unanimously approved the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, which allows the U.S. government to employ the commercial space sector as a full partner to provide services to the International Space Station (ISS), the White House confirmed July 20.     The legislation provides $312 million...

[Satellite TODAY 07-21-10]  U.S. Air Force Space Command and Space and Missile Systems Center officials confirmed that the on-orbit checkout of its first GPS 2F satellite is progressing as scheduled as it approaches the halfway point of the 90-day checkout period, the Air Force said July 20.     The GPS 2F SV-1, also known as...

[Satellite TODAY 07-21-10] Cisco’s Space-router technology has passed a U.S. Department of Defense satellite-orbit test for use of next-generation satellite-based IP services and communications from space, the company announced July 20.     The U.S. military tested Cisco’s Internet Routing in Space (IRIS) through its Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) evaluation. During the JCTD test, military...