Government/Military

[Satellite Today 05-21-09] Boeing Co. accused NASA of “inexplicably” altering the evaluation process between the company and its competitor, Lockheed Martin, in the battle for a $1.1 billion contract to build up to four GOES-R weather satellites, Boeing announced May 19.     NASA awarded Lockheed Martin with the contract in December. Boeing initially filed a...

[Satellite Today 05-20-09] The Indian Institute of Technology of Kanpur (IITK) has received approval from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to launch Jugnu, India’s lightest nano satellite, by the end of 2009, IITK announced May 19.     IITK secured the approval after the completion of a second design review. ISRO carried out the first...

[Satellite News 05-20-09] The bandwidth needs of the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Defense and its coalition forces have increased to the point where the U.S. government now relies on commercial satellite providers for 80 percent of its total capacity to meet mission requirements, according to Bill Schmidt, vice president of government marketing...

[Satellite Today 05-19-09] NASA rescheduled the launch of the U.S. Air Force’s TacSat-3 satellite on a Minotaur rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport for Tuesday, May 19, NASA announced May 18.     The launch’s back-up date is Wednesday, May 20, with both launch windows between 7:35 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. The launch was originally planned...

[Satellite Today 05-18-09] GMV opened commercial offices in Malaysia and the Korean Republic, marking the Spain-based company’s entrance into the Asia region, GMV announced May 15.     The company said the new offices will enable GMV to provide broader services to clients in Asia, forge even closer bonds with its technological partners and gain a...

[Satellite Today 05-18-09] ATSB will launch its remote sensing satellite, RazakSat, in mid-July after its scheduled April 21 launch was postponed due to technical problems, ATSB announced May 15.     Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) will launch RazakSat from Omelek island, part of the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific nation of Marshall Islands. Malaysia’s Science,...

[Satellite Today 05-15-09] Arianespace launched the Herschel and Planck satellites for the European Space Agency (ESA) from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, Arianespace announced May 14.    The two space observatories, built by Thales Alenia Space, will drift to reach a stable point 1.5 million kilometers from Earth to ensure the thermal conditions needed...

[Satellite Today 05-15-09] The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) backed NASA‘s action to award Orbital Sciences the contract to provide commercial resupply services for the International Space Station over PlanetSpace, which filed a complaint with the GAO, according to a GAO statement released May 14.    “We think [NASA] clearly acted reasonably in concluding that...

[Satellite Today 05-13-09] GeoEye Inc. reported a revenue increase of 26 percent to $45.2 million compared to $35.9 million in the first quarter of 2008 in its first quarter 2009 financial results released May 12.     However, the imagery company’s net loss widened to $1.74 million from $817,000 in 2008.     GeoEye said the increase...

[Satellite Today 05-12-09] A new active period of Earth-threatening solar storms will be the weakest since 1928, according to a May 8 announcement by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).     A NOAA and NASA panel predicted that solar cycle 24 will peak in May 2013 with 90 sunspots per day on average....