Government/Military

[Satellite TODAY 12-15-09] The U.S. Senate passed an omnibus spending bill, which provides NASA with an $18.7 billion budget through September and establishes new congressional oversight of NASA’s Constellation program, NASA announced Dec. 14.     The 2010 NASA budget is $942 million higher than its 2009 funding level, with $50 million allocated toward assessing satellite-servicing...

[Satellite TODAY 12-15-09] National Hybrid Inc., a provider of military databus products and technologies, has partnered with Pulse Engineering to develop Bus+ — a compact MIL-STD-1553 data bus that combines a hybrid satellite/terrestrial transceiver and transformer, the companies announced Dec. 14. The unit combines National Hybrid’s proprietary transceiver ASIC and Pulse’s 1553-45 or 1553-71 dual...

[Satellite TODAY 12-15-09] Spectrum Signal Processing, a supplier of signal processing, has released XMC-2131, a new high-speed I/O module, Spectrum announced Dec. 14.      The XMC-2131, which can be used in applications such as signals intelligence, electronic warfare and military communications systems, features a large Virtex-5 FX130T FPGA from Xilinx combined with high-speed dual 300...

[Satellite News 12-15-09] Commercial satellite industry representatives, developers, vendors and U.S. military bandwidth providers, along with U.S. Defense Information Systems (DISA) PEO and Satellite Director Bruce Bennett, will come together for Via Satellite’s Dec. 16 Webinar, “Addressing the Issues of Government and Military Bandwidth Acquisition,” to discuss solutions in order to better serve U.S. forces...

[Satellite News 12-15-09] In the wake of New Orleans’ near destruction by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, U.S. federal agencies and their communications infrastructures came under public scrutiny. Deficiencies in the communications networks were one of the factors cited as the reason for the government’s slow response.     In response, several mobile and broadband satellite companies...

[Satellite TODAY 12-14-09] The United Kingdom will create a new executive space and satellite agency, the U.K. Science and Innovation Ministry announced Dec. 10.     The agency will replace the British National Space Center and bring together six government departments, two research councils, the Technology Strategy Board and the Met Office that currently oversee the...

[Satellite TODAY 12-14-09] IoStar International Ltd. of Hong Kong is now using more than a full Ku-band transponder on Telesat’s Telstar 18 satellite to serve the communications needs of NATO troops in Afghanistan, Telesat announced Dec. 11.     IoStar, a provider of Ku-band satellite broadband to commercial and government customers in Asia, said that demand...

[Satellite TODAY 12-11-09] There’s still time to register for Via Satellite’s highly anticipated Dec. 16 Webinar, "Addressing the Issues of Government and Military Bandwidth Acquisition."     Via Satellite’s bandwidth acquisition Webinar will bring military, government, industry associations and commercial satellite companies together to discuss  developments with DISA’s FCSA program and how the satellite industry and...

[Satellite TODAY 12-09-09] Boeing has acquired the first on-orbit signals from the WGS-3 spacecraft, the third of six Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) satellites built for the U.S. Department of Defense, Boeing announced Dec. 8.     Boeing reported that WGS-3, launched Dec. 5 by a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket, is functioning normally and ready...

[Satellite TODAY 12-07-09] Globecomm Systems has rolled out an operational commercial X-band service offering for U.S. military and coalition forces operating in Southwest Asia, the Middle East and Africa, the company announced Dec. 3.     The end-to-end X-band offering combines licensed teleport assets, a global fiber network, commercial X-band space segment, a redundant iDirect IP...