Government/Military

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is counting down to the launch of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) that will begin a new era for the agency, according to ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair. The April 23 mission from Satish Dhawan Space Center will place the Agile scientific spacecraft into orbit for the Italian...

A British government official suggested to Parliament last week that satellite geolocation technology might be used to help monitor the elderly and those suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease, but the concept was met with ethical concerns and some derision as "tag-a-granny." Speaking at an April 18 parliamentary hearing of the Commons science and technology...

The United States risks losing its military dominance in space and its preeminence as an explorer if more funding is not provided for programs in the void beyond Earth, Robert Stevens, chairman, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp. said. "Put simply: There is no substitute or alternative to military dominance in space … and...

Intelsat officials met with Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the United States April 10 to discuss how to stop unauthorized use of an Intelsat satellite by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a terrorist group based in Sri Lanka, Intelsat announced. The U.S. State Department lists the LTTE as a foreign terrorist organization, and their...

Officers from the department were working with the Australian Banana Growers Council and the University of Queensland to produce a detailed snapshot of banana plantations in the wake of the cyclone, which hit the area in March 2006. "Queensland’s climate is projected to become more variable in the future, with a likely increase in the...

In a program designed to provide Internet protocol (IP) services to warfighters and other military personnel anytime and anywhere, the U.S. Department of Defense unveiled April 11 a public-private program to test Internet Routing In Space (IRIS). Managed by Intelsat General, the program is one of seven projects that will be funded fiscal 2007 as...

Bigelow Aerospace thinks the secret to turning the suborbital tourism marketing in a successful business is by selling "hang time" to "sovereign clients" — specifically astronaut-supporting countries harboring aspirations of a space program — aboard the company’s planned low-Earth orbit space complex. Founder and CEO Robert Bigelow divulged for the first time April 10 his...

DigitalGlobe and GeoEye will provide satellite imagery to support an international group that provides data free of charge to those affected by disasters, the U.S. Geological Survey announced April 12. The International Charter “Space and Major Disasters” was initiated by the European Space Agency and CNES, the French space agency, in July 1999 and has...

Raytheon Company will produce upgrade kits for its Secure Mobile Anti-jam Reliable Tactical Terminal, or SMART-T, for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps as well as Canada and the Netherlands, the company announced April 12 The Advanced Extremely High Frequency kits, which will be produced under an $84.6 million contract, will expand the data rate...

U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, described the Jan. 11 Chinese anti-satellite test as “a logical place to go” as China seeks to improve its space technology. “Why wouldn’t a country go after that? We did this back in 1985,” Cartwright said at an April 12 session of the...