Government/Military

[Satellite Today – 3-24-08] Patriot Antenna Systems Inc. been awarded a federal supply schedule contract by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to provide equipment and services to government customers, the company announced June 24.     This contract will allow any government entity, military installation, American consulate, etc. to purchase Patriot products at will and...

[Satellite Today – 3-24-08] Arqiva has won a contract to provide video services using MPEG-4 technology to U.K. armed forces stationed overseas, Arqiva said June 23.     Under a contract from Services Sound & Vision Corp. (SSVC), Arqiva will increase the number of British Forces Broadcasting Service channels broadcast to U.K. armed forces personnel stationed...

[Satellite Today – 6-23-08] Com Dev International Ltd. will design, build and launch a micro-satellite for the government of Canada, the company announced June 23. Under the contract, valued at 8.6 million Canadian dollars ($8.5 million), Com Dev will develop the Maritime Monitoring and Messaging Micro-satellite (M3MSat), a technology demonstration mission jointly funded and managed...

[Satellite Today – 6-20-08] Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL)’s Earth observation satellite has passed its Test Readiness Review (TRR), the company said June 19. The DMC-2 satellite is scheduled for build completion in September 2008, and this new Earth observation satellite will provide higher performance imaging capabilities to the Disaster Monitoring Constellation, which is operated...

[Satellite Today – 6-19-08] The United States is using capacity on the United Kingdom’s military Skynet 5 satellites and further deals could be struck later this year. Paradigm, an EADS company, which operates the satellites is targeting further deals outside of the U.K. for capacity on the Skynet 5A, 5B, 5C satellites. In terms of...

[Satellite News – 6-17-08] Space situational awareness is one of the key issues that countries around the world have to work on throughout the next 10 years in terms of improving the space landscape, according to U.S. Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, commander, U.s. Strategic Command “We have really just started talking about our capabilities...

[Satellite Today – 6-10-08] The glass mirror blank for GeoEye’s next-generation Earth imaging has been delivered to camera manufacturer ITT Corp., GeoEye announced June 10.     GeoEye awarded a contract in October to ITT for the development of the camera for GeoEye-2. ITT’s Space Systems Division will begin grinding and polishing the mirror, which measures...

[Satellite Today – 06-06-08] Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) signed a deal with NASA to improve mission critical software systems, the company said June 5.      Under a Space Act Agreement, SpaceX will work to advance mission- and safety-critical software used for sending SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station.     SpaceX will work with...

[Satellite Today – 06-04-08] GeoEye Inc. won a contract with the U.S. government, valued at $22 million, the company said June 4.     Under this award, GeoEye will provide the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) a significant amount of value-added, imagery-based geospatial-intelligence products including the company’s airport mapping product line.     Imagery processing and production...

When terrestrial communications equipment has either been destroyed or rendered unavailable, satellite-based emergency systems receive praise for picking up the slack. But memories fade after the debris is cleaned up, and emergency communications providers are find that their systems must serve multiple purposes in order to attract potential customers. Fully redundant networks provide operational continuity,...