Government/Military

[Satellite Today 06-24-09] Latvia has become a full member of the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat), the organization confirmed June 23.     As a member state, Latvia will participate fully in Eumetsat’s decisionmaking process, and its industry will be able to bid for contracts in addition to maintaining the unlimited access...

[Satellite Today 06-23-09] Spacenet signed a multi-year agreement with SES Americom-New Skies for expanded capacity on the AMC-4, AMC-5 and AMC-6 satellites serving emergency response networks in North America, Spacenet announced June 22.     The expansion will enable Spacenet to offer improved connectivity to businesses, governments and law enforcement agencies in the event of catastrophic...

[Satellite Today 06-23-09] Northrop Grumman has delivered the first of two Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) demonstration satellites to the U.S. Air Force Cape Canaveral Air Station for launch preparation, Northrop Grumman announced June 22.     Once operational, STSS, part of the ballistic missile defense network, aims to demonstrate key functions of a space-based...

 [Satellite Today 06-22-09] The U.S. Air Force‘s space acquisition center reported that a GPS satellite, manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp., launched in March, is not performing as well as expected, the U.S. Air Force announced June 16.     The Air Force said glitches in the satellite’s performance could complicate deployment of a new series of...

[Satellite Today 06-22-09] United Launch Alliance (ULA) launched NASA‘s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) carrying the Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) aboard an Atlas 5 rocket at 5:32 p.m. EDT on June 18, NASA announced.     The $504 million mission will steer LCROSS on course toward a head-on collision with the bottom of a...

[Satellite Today 06-19-09] Hispasat won a contract from Thales Alenia Space España to develop and supply the RedSat advanced communication payload for the AG1, a geostationary satellite mission within the scope of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Artes 11 program, Thales Alenia Space announced June 18. The ESA Artes 11 program is aimed at the...

[Satellite Today 06-19-09] The U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has awarded Harris Corp. with a potential five-year, $27 million contract to provide network and systems engineering to support DISA’s  Multinational Information Sharing (MNIS) program management office, Harris announced June 18.  Harris will act as sole subcontractor to EDS, an HP company, on the MNIS...

[Satellite Today 06-16-09] Boeing Satellite Systems received a $13.8 million contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for phase 2 of the Fast Access Spacecraft Testbed (FAST) satellite power generation and propulsion program, DARPA announced June 12.     The program is intended to demonstrate a high-power generation and propulsion system for mobile...

[Satellite Today 06-10-09] The U.S. Air Force is terminating for convenience the Transformational Satellite Communications System (T-Sat) Mission Operations System contract with Lockheed Martin, the Air Force announced June 8.     The contract is being canceled because the Air Force terminated the $26 billion T-Sat program as part of a restructuring of U.S. defense spending...

[Satellite Today 06-10-09] Iridium Satellite received a contract from the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, to support development and delivery of the Distributed Tactical Communications System (DTCS), Iridium announced June 9.     DTCS is an extension of Netted Iridium, the company’s push-to-talk communications capability. DTCS will provide over-the-horizon, on-the-move, beyond line-of-sight netted voice and...