[Satellite TODAY Insider 05-02-11] The Hosted Payload Alliance (HPA), formed in March by seven of the satellite industry’s biggest companies to promote potential benefits of hosted government payloads on commercial satellites, hosted a panel of senior government officials to outline opportunities and challenges associated with the 2010 National Space Policy, HPA announced April 29.
    Panelists agreed the new U.S. space policy opens the door for government departments and agencies to explore the use of hosted payloads for acquiring commercial space goods and services to meet U.S. government requirements.
    "Federal budgets for many space programs are being reduced. Hosted payloads present an opportunity for the government to leverage commercial investments to provide access to space. But there is a lot of work to be done to align the government’s operational requirements and timetables with the commercial constraints of the private sector when it comes to the details of acquiring, designing, manufacturing and deploying payloads into space," said panel moderator U.S. Air Force Gen. Lance Lord, a former commander of the Air Force Space Command who managed development, acquisition and operation of U.S. military space and missile systems.
    Iridium Executive Vice President and HPA Steering Committee Chairman Don Thoma said that while HPA is not a lobbying organization, it is trying to lead discussions on how hosted payloads could cut operational costs for military and government users. "The U.S. government could benefit from using commercial spacecraft to host certain missions, providing significantly lower cost, shorter development cycle times, the opportunity to share orbital slot locations and the ability to disaggregate assets for a more resilient space architecture," said Thoma.
    Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, Intelsat General, Iridium Communications, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Orbital Sciences, SES World Skies U.S. Government Solutions and Space Systems/Loral all serve as HPA steering committee members. The committee was established at the SATELLITE 2011 conference in Washington, D.C., where it drafted its charter to establish HPA objectives and goals.
    "An important goal of this group is to act as a source of subject-matter expertise to educate stakeholders in the public and private sectors on the numerous opportunities for hosted payloads on commercial launch spacecraft," Thoma said in a statement following the launch of HPA.
    HPA said it expects to be joined by other satellite operators, satellite manufacturers and system integrators.

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