Government/Military

The U.S. government will fund NASA missions to the moon, Mars and beyond in coming decades, even though federal finances are constrained by daunting deficits, an industry leader predicted. For multiple reasons, funds will be found to fulfill American dreams of going where no man has gone before, John Douglass, president and CEO of the...

U.S. military and commercial satellites, long considered out of harm’s way, are vulnerable to multiple types of attack, an assault a determined enemy someday will attempt, according to military, government, industry and think tank experts testifying before the House Armed Services Committee strategic forces subcommittee June 21. "It would be imprudent for us to not...

Healing Hands International (HHI), a non-profit humanitarian organization, plans to use satellite imagery from Digitalglobe for planning and visualization efforts surrounding agricultural development and disaster relief missions in Africa and Central America, Digitalglobe announced June 14. HHI, which provides sustainability education and training to third-world countries, is working with the Native Communities Development Corp. (NCDC),...

Less than a year ago, the final report of NASA‘s sweeping Exploration Systems Architecture study squashed the idea of using technology developed under the U.S. Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program on the agency’s moon/Mars Cargo Launch Vehicle. "No RS-68-powered variant of an EELV-derived heavy-lift cargo vehicle demonstrated the capability to meet the...

The multi-billion-dollar National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) was saved, at least for now, from potential cancellation when U.S. Department of Defense leaders restructured the troubled program by reducing the number of satellites and sensors, as reported first in our sister publication Defense Daily. Led by Northrop Grumman Corp., with input by Raytheon Co.,...

Amnesty International released the first-ever satellite images of the wholesale destruction of a large community in Zimbabwe — providing evidence to date of the devastating impact of the Zimbabwean government’s policy of house demolitions. "These satellite images are irrefutable evidence — if further evidence is even needed — that the Zimbabwean government has obliterated entire...

National, state and local government officials will be crossing their fingers and praying for a calm hurricane season, which started June 1. After all, little has been done to advance the stage of emergency preparedness, so there is not much else they can do at this late date. Even though today, we truly know better...

A team of students from the Climate Change College was using Inmarsat‘s Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN), system to maintain contact with headquarters and loved ones during a 10-day expedition on the Greenland Ice Sheet. The team, participating in the European Space Agency‘s (ESA) Cryosat validation experiment, set up camp on the ice and was...

Members of the House Science Committee lambasted the oversight of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) program in a May 11 hearing, citing soaring costs, schedules missed and performance fees paid to the contractor when some performance goals were not met. During an hours-long, heated hearing, Johnnie Frazier, the U.S. Department of Commerce...

Four teams are competing for a U.S. Air Force contract to develop an advanced launch vehicle that consists of a reusable first stage and an expendable second stage booster. The winner of the Hybrid Launch Vehicle competition is expected to produce a vehicle that will be capable of launching payloads into space and having the...