Government/Military

[09/12/07 – Satellite Today]  Iridium is going to provide the Swedish Armed Forces with critical communications service, the company announced Sept. 12. The Iridium satellite services are being supplied under a service agreement with IDG Europe, and will be used for voice and data communications applications. The services will support the Nordic Battle Group, which...

[09/12/07 – Satellite Today] The Boeing Company has successfully assembled and integrated all flight hardware onto the first Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF satellite, the company announced Sept. 12. The satellites, which were ordered by the Navstar GPS Wing at the space and Missile Systems Center, have an L-band payload and will include new hardware...

[09-10-07 – Satellite Today] Lockheed Martin has successfully mated the spacecraft bus and the payload for the first Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) geosynchronous orbit (GEO-1) satellite, the company announced Sept. 10. The system, which will provide early warning of ballistic missile launches, as well as supporting other missions including missile defense, technical intelligence and battlespace...

[09-10-07 – Satellite Today]  DataPath and Qualcomm have signed a joint marketing agreement to provide integrated satellite and cellular communications solutions for military and disaster recovery teams, the company announced Sept. 10. The two companies collaborated to design the Integrated Tactical Cellular Communications Solution (ITCCS), which links SATCOM connectivity with a deployable cellular base station...

Lockheed Martin has begun production on a reconfigured GPS 2R-M satellite to temporarily transmit a third civil signal, the company said Sept. 4. Lockheed is working with ITT under a U.S. Air Force contract to develop and integrate a payload that will provide an on-orbit demonstration capability for a new civil signal. The signal, located...

[09/03/07 – Satellite Today] The U.S. Air Force Global Positioning Systems Wing passed the initial integrated system test on the first GPS Block 2F satellite Aug. 27, the Air Force announced. The test confirms that each major subsystem, electrical power system, attitude determination and control system as well as the telemetry, tracking and command and...

[09/03/07 – Satellite Today] India placed the Insat-4CR satellite into orbit Sept. 2 in the first mission since the July 2006 failure of a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, the Indian Space Research Organisation announced. Insat-4CR, the largest satellite launched to date by an Indian rocket, replaces the Insat-4C satellite lost in the failure. Insat-4CR, the...

The United Kingdom House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has issued a review of the country’s space policy. The 158-page report, released in July, assesses the space sector and recommends that the government take a “strategic approach” to a limited set of space activities. The report is a comprehensive source of information on the...

ITT Corp. has been selected by U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to develop and deploy a satellite-based air traffic control system, the company and the FAA announced Aug. 30. The Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system will replace the current system of ground-based radars and is a key component of the FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation...

[8-30-07 – Satellite News Today] Comtech Mobile Datacom Corp. will supply the U.S. National Guard with mobile satellite transceivers, control station computers and installation support under a contract valued at $31.2 million, the company announced Aug. 30. Comtech will supply the National Guard with the Model MT-2012 mobile satellite transceivers, which feature Savi Technology‘s ISO-compliant...