Government/Military

The U.K. government initiated two consultations this summer that will have an impact on the satellite industry as a whole. Both are initiatives of the newly-renamed Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) — previously the Department of Trade and Industry and roughly the equivalent of the U.S. Department of Commerce. One consultation is on...

The 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing, and the approaching end of the space shuttle program after a nearly 30-year run have prompted reflection and soul-searching in the United States as to the direction of future space efforts. While the shuttle has provided enormous scientific benefits and given the U.S. astronauts...

[Satellite TODAY 09-30-09] Comtech Mobile Datacom received $7.3 million in Blue Force Tracking orders from the U.S. Army, the company announced Sept. 29.     Comtech will supply the Army with MT-2011 mobile satellite transceivers and related engineering and support services. The new orders brings Comtech’s Blue Force Tracking contract total to $213.8 out of a...

[Satellite TODAY 09-30-09] RapidEye has been added to the prime vendor contract list for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Services as well as the USDA Office of Global Analysis (OGA) and the USDA International Production and Assessment Division, the imagery company announced Sept. 29.     “The use of RapidEye satellite data should...

[Satellite TODAY 09-30-09] GeoEye has received $249.5 million in funding as a result of its 2012 senior note sale offered Sept. 21, the company announced.     The funding is a portion of the total capital investment that GeoEye has been seeking in its September financing push. The initial offering of $350 million was offered at...

[Satellite TODAY 09-29-09] Boeing completed developmental system testing on the U.S. Air Force‘s Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite ground control system, known as the Operational Control Segment (OCS), for the addition of a new security capability, the company announced Sept. 28.     The test demonstrated that the unit’s Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) software upgrade...

[Satellite TODAY 09-25-09] ViaSat Inc. was awarded two orders valued at more than $10 million for Multifunctional Information Distribution System (MIDS) terminals and spare components from the U.S. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego, ViaSat announced Sept. 24.     The new orders are an addition to a $21 million Lot 10 delivery...

[Satellite TODAY 09-25-09] SpaceX demonstrated its DragonEye proximity sensor to be used on NASA’s STS-127 shuttle mission, the launch company announced Sept. 25.     DragonEye was launched aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour July 15 and was tested in proximity of the International Space Station (ISS) in preparation for future visits by SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.     ...

[Satellite TODAY 09-25-09] The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched the Oceansat-2 and six nanosatellites, including Jugnu, India’s lightest nanosatellite, the organization said Sept. 23.     The satellites were launched via ISRO’s PSLV-C14 launch vehicle.     Oceansat-2 is an Indian Earth observation satellite and has an expected lifetime of five years.     Jungu, which weighs...

[Satellite TODAY 09-25-09] GeoEye Inc. has upped its 9.6 interest debt offering to $400 million, the imagery company announced Sept. 24.     The initial offering of $350 million was announced Sept. 21. GeoEye said it would sell the latest offering at 97.2 percent of its face value, with an effective yield of 10.25 percent.    ...