Government/Military

With the consolidation of the major players in the Fixed Satellite Services industry now completed, public and private investors are now turning their attention to other aspects of the satellite market to see if there is another return on investment. Peter Nesgos, a partner at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP in New York, has...

The U.S. Air Force failed to follow federal regulations in awarding a contract to Boeing Co. to develop a sensor for a next-generation government weather satellite, according to an audit released by the Defense Department Inspector General July 10. Boeing received a contract in June 2001 to develop the Conical Scanning Microwave Imager/Sounder for the...

The European Space Agency (ESA) is in the middle of a critical period as it aims to put together programs that will benefit people all over Europe. The role of satellites in reducing the digital divide, providing data and research which will help in terms of dealing with natural disasters and improving the transport system...

The New York Air National Guard is turning to satellite-enabled technology for its research in Antarctica. Using the Iridium satellite network for voice and data communications, The unit has installed Iridium handsets, as well as communications interfaces from Flightcell, an Iridium value-added manufacturer, on its fleet of ski-equipped C130 aircraft. This system will provide communications...

The U.S. Air Force has asked for industry input to begin defining the alternative payloads that the service may pursue in place of buying a full complement of Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) High missile launch warning satellites. A program research and development announcement issued July 7 by the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems...

Iridium is providing satellite data links for a new system of 31 ocean buoys being deployed by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The second-generation Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (Dart 2) system is being established by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‘s(NOAA) National Data Center in order to detect and monitor tsunami waves...

Globalstar applied for authority from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to use its entire assigned Mobile Satellite Services spectrum for Ancillary Terrestrial Component (ATC) services in the United States, claiming it needs the space to offer more services and that current restrictions are unfair and contrary to the public good. "Ultimately Globalstar’s limited ATC...

Ongoing military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq are putting more emphasis on the need for reliable, robust and bandwidth-rich satcom-on-the-move (SOTM) solutions. The U.S. military and Allied Forces relies primarily on small portable, fixed VSAT terminals which can be deployed rapidly, as existing SOTM programs are limited in number and in scope. Among other things,...

The European Space Agency (ESA) has demonstrated a prototype satellite navigation system accurate enough to direct vision-impaired pedestrians. This system, designed with the Spanish National Organisation for the Blind, is based on the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), the precursor to the planned Galileo satellite navigation system. EGNOS, a joint project of ESA, the...

The final report from NASA‘s Exploration Systems Architecture Study threw its support behind using a shuttle-derived solid rocket booster (SRB)-based launch vehicle for the agency’s mission to return humans to the moon and eventually to Mars. Originally, this vehicle was to be based on the same four-segment booster made by ATK Thiokol for the space...