Government/Military

[Satellite TODAY 04-01-10] Gilat Satellite Networks received a multi-million dollar contract to deliver a turnkey broadband satellite solution to a Latin American defense agency to be used for border control applications, the company announced March 31.     The solution is based on Gilat’s SkyEdge 2 DVB-S2 and DVB-RCS-powered data, video and voice application platform and...

[Satellite TODAY 04-01-10] The governments of China and Brazil have agreed to share satellite data with each other and with developing countries including in Africa, a Brazilian official in Beijing announced March 31.     In a statement, Andre Amado, Brazil’s vice minister for energy and high technology, said Chinese President Hu Jintao would sign an...

[Satellite TODAY 04-01-10] U.K. scientists, funded by Astrium, have developed a 30-kilogram nanosatellite intended to clear more than 5,500 tons of debris in low-Earth orbit, the University of Surrey announced March 31.     The CubeSail nanosatellite, fitted with a solar sail, is designed to attach to other satellites or launch vehicle upper stages and independently...

[Satellite TODAY 04-01-10] Astrium has been commissioned by the European Space Agency (ESA) to build the Sentinel-2B optical satellite, the next flight unit in the Sentinel series, the company announced March 31.         Astrium will be responsible for the satellite‚s overall system design, multi-spectral instrument, platform, integration and testing. The contract is valued at 105...

The military satellite communications landscape has undergone some fundamental changes throughout the last 12 months. As an economic recession took hold around the world, governments had to examine where they were spending their money and whether space programs, particularly in the military area, could be justified. The United States signalled its intentions last year by...

I have not been able to pick up a mainstream newspaper or magazine, turn on TV news, or check out a news Web site in the past several months without seeing discussions about the contributions of the satellite sector in modern society.  Some of these discussions have been more overt — the positive efforts of...

“Space has been one of the hidden success stories of British industry in recent years.” So begins a comprehensive report issued in early February by a joint U.K. government, industry and academia initiative called the “Space Innovation and Growth Strategy” or Space IGS. The Space IGS was initiated by Lord Paul Drayson, U.K. Minister for...

When considering commercial space one thinks of satellites. When one thinks about the intersection of commercial space and consumers one thinks of satellite TV, GPS, broadband over satellite and the like. Thus, it has always been and thus it shall ever be? The technological base required to conduct space operations was mastered in the 1960s....

In December, we discussed the final report of the White House Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee, otherwise known as the Augustine Committee. The report found NASA’s current human spaceflight program to be on an “unsustainable trajectory, … pursuing goals that do not match allocated resources.” To solve this issue, the report advocated extending...

[Satellite News 04-01-10] While individual European Union (EU) states are responsible for their militaries, agencies such as European Defense Agency (EDA) have been created to promote a defense structure and oversee temporary defense forces as well as military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But, the common European defense structure is struggling with a milsatcom puzzle...