Government/Military

The global melting of glaciers continues to take center stage as growing impact of greenhouse on the world’s icecaps continues to make news. In the forefront of the research rest satellite imagery. An iceberg about the size of Martha’s Vineyard broke off from the Fimbul Ice Shelf, a large glacial ice sheet, located along the...

By James Careless Talk to many satellite operators in Latin America, and they will tell you the same thing: The Latin American market is not for the faint of heart. The combination of uncertain ‘roller coaster’ economies, political volatility and the continuing habit of incoming Latin American regimes to rewrite telecom rules as they see...

When it comes to buying emergency satellite communications before disaster hits, governments have yet to fully embrace purchasing complete systems. "They don’t want to pay for it if they’re not using it," said Kirby Farrell, executive vice president of Segovia. "Emergency managers at the state level, even after the hurricanes that destroyed the Gulf Coast,...

Satellite measurements of a steep difference in sea surface height between the western and eastern Pacific Ocean support predictions that a La Nina event that would impact global weather could be forming, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced. During a La Nina event, warm water shifts westward in the Pacific Ocean to induce upwelling of...

A key House Armed Services Committee (HASC) member is warning contractors to make sure satellite and other space-based technologies are mature before fielding them or risk losing congressional support. "We’ve got to get control of this," Rep. Terry Everett (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services strategic force subcommittee, told sister publication Defense Daily in...

The European Space Agency (ESA) in mid February began issuing ocean current forecasts to the oil production industry based on a combination of state-of-the-art ocean models and satellite measurements. The program, dubbed Ocean Focus, is designed to warn the industry of dangerous eddies and proved beneficial almost immediately, as the forecasts was able to provide...

By Jason Bates Testing of the first Galileo satellites is underway, bringing the promise of improved and new satellite navigation services even closer. While full Galileo operations remain years away, the launch of the first operational Galileo spacecraft in 2008 promises to deliver immediate benefits to users of today’s satellite navigation signals. Down the road,...

The U.S. Air Force‘s senior military space leadership intends to turn the service’s troubled space acquisition processes into the model of excellence across the Department of Defense. The goal amounts to a modern-day phoenix of sorts because many of the Air Force’s sophisticated, big-ticket, space programs in development, such as the Space Based Infrared Systems...

A U.S. federal district court dismissed Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX)’s anti-trust lawsuit seeking to halt the proposed launch partnership proposed by Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., saying that SpaceX does not yet have legal standing to sue the two aerospace giants. Instead, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper of the Central District of California wrote in her...

The U.S. Defense Department has made commercial satellites as its number one option for military in-theater communications. "In the past, [military satellite communications] was our first-in choice," U.S. Air Force Maj. Michael Moyles, commercial satcom operational manager at U.S. Strategic Command, said. Now "we’re turning to you first. That’s a tremendous change in [Department of...