Government/Military

[Satellite TODAY 12-29-09] Bolivia expects to construct and launch Tupac Katari, the country’s first telecommunication satellite and cooperative project with China, within three years, the Bolivian government announced Dec. 22.     Bolivia said that negotiations between the two potential partners, which were being facilitated by Chinese Great Wall Industrial Corp., have been successful and that...

[Satellite TODAY 12-29-09] Iran plans to unveil Toloo, its new national satellite, in early February, according to a statement released Dec. 22 by Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi.     Toloo is under construction by the Iranian Electronics Industries Co. The satellite is Iran’s second following the launch of Omid, its first lightweight telecommunications satellite, in...

[Satellite TODAY 12-24-09] Overwatch, a provider U.S. military satellite communications systems, has hired Karl Stupnik as business development manager.     Stupnik will be responsible for the development of new business initiatives and sales opportunities.      Stupnik previously served as General Dynamics’ C4 Systems sales manager and has more than 10 years of satellite industry experience...

 [Satellite TODAY 12-22-09] The U.S. House of Representatives has approved $1.6 million for Morehead State University to develop and test solar power technologies applicable to satellites, Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY) announced Dec. 21.     The Space Science Center at Morehead State supports U.S. aerospace and electronics industries with training, research and development for small satellite...

[Satellite TODAY 12-21-09] Orbital Sciences was awarded a $74.6 million Phase 2 contract by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop the final design for the System F6 spacecraft.     Orbital will partner with IBM and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the project and will be responsible for the detailed design...

[Satellite TODAY 12-18-09] The GeoEye-1 satellite experienced an irregularity in its antenna, which will impact GeoEye’s 2010 revenues by as much as 10 percent and may affect its business with ground station downlink contracts overseas, the company announced in a Dec. 17 conference call.     In November, the Dulles, Va.-based imagery company had projected 2010...

[Satellite TODAY 12-18-09] Lockheed Martin has met the requirements of a NASA and U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) critical design review of a Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) unit that will be installed on Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-R Series satellites, Lockheed Martin announced Dec. 17.     Lockheed Martin, which was contracted in 2007...

[Satellite TODAY 12-17-09] Northrop Grumman has been selected by NASA to supply a scalable space inertial reference unit for its Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, Northrop Grumman announced Dec. 16.     The inertial reference system supplies rotation rate data that enables the stabilization, pointing and attitude control of satellites and space vehicles. For the GPM...

[Satellite TODAY 12-16-09] The French Space Agency (CNES) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have extended their contract with GMV to provide mission control of Convection Rotation and planetary Transits (Corot) probe through 2012, GMV announced Dec. 15.     GMV is responsible for the design, development and maintenance of the Corot mission control, which prepares...

[Satellite TODAY 12-15-09] Comtech Telecommunications will deliver $2.4 million in satellite modems and redundancy switches to the U.S. Department of Defense to support warfighter communications infrastructure, Comtech announced Dec. 14.      Comtech EF Data will provide the U.S. military with DMD2050 universal satellite modems and corresponding redundancy switches. The DMD2050 modems aim to provide advanced...