Government/Military

[Satellite Today – 2-18-08] Astrium has joined forces with a pair of Spanish organizations to create an Earth observation joint venture, Astrium announced Feb. 18.     Astrium entered into a joint venture with the Cartographic Institute of Catalonia (ICC), the Catalan official mapping agency, and Hisdesat, a space services provider, to create Infoterra Servicios de...

[Satellite Today – 2-14-08] Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has completed the preliminary design review for the second Falcon 9/Dragon demonstration under NASA‘s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) project, the company announced Feb. 12.     Under COTS, SpaceX will conduct three Falcon 9/Dragon flights, demonstrating the ability to approach, berth, and deliver cargo to the...

[Satellite Today – 2-14-08] Boeing Launch Services and Lockheed Martin Space Systems have been awarded contract modification by the U.S. Air Force to upgrade launch facilities, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Feb. 13.     Boeing received $288 million to maintain support of the Delta 4 Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Capability contract, while Lockheed...

[Satellite Today – 2-11-08] Thales Alenia Space has delivered SIRAL-2, the synthetic aperture interferometric radar altimeter for the CryoSat-2 mission, to prime contractor EADS Astrium, Thales announced Feb. 11.     CryoSat-2 will measure ice thickness around the globe to determine whether the polar ice caps are shrinking and help increase the understanding of the relationship...

[Satellite Today – 2-11-08] Raytheon Co. has won a contract from the U.S. Air Force to develop, deliver, and support an advanced satellite communication system of ground-based communication terminals, Raytheon announced Feb. 11.     Under the $75 million Minuteman Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network program upgrade contract, Raytheon Network Centric Systems will field the terminals...

Alan Baldwin President and CEO Peter Gaffney Executive Vice President for New Business and Technology [Satellite News – 2-7-08] Alan Baldwin has served as interim president and CEO of Integral Systems for nearly nine months, presiding over three quarters of record profits and growth as well as bringing in more government contracts.     Baldwin was...

[Satellite Today – 2-4-08] Northrop Grumman Corp. demonstrated the interface compatibility of the next-generation Advanced Extremely High Frequency (EHF) military communications satellite using a U.S. Army user terminal, the company announced Feb. 1.     Advanced EHF is a joint service satellite communications system that will provide assured communications for high-priority military ground, sea and air...

A team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is using the agency’s first software-defined radio (SDR) system in deep space to communicate with spacecraft studying Mars. The system, dubbed Electra, is a fully redundant UHF relay solution aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which was launched in 2005 and is expected to operate until 2010. In...

[Satellite Today – 1-30-08] OHB Technology AG acquired 50 percent of the interest in RST Raumfahrt Systemtechnik GmbH from the company’s founder and owner, OHB Technology announced Jan. 30.     RST has been a radar partner of OHB-System AG in the SAR-Lupe, assuming project responsibility for the radar conceptual design and SAR processing in particular....

[Satellite Today – 1-29-08] Mobile Satellite Ventures will operate two Mid-Atlantic States Mutual Aid Radio Talkgroups (MSMART) to provide public safety and emergency communications, the company announced Jan. 29.     The MSMART talkgroups were established for federal, state, local, and private sector public safety agencies located throughout Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the...