Latest News

NASA signed Space Act agreements with PlanetSpace Inc. and Transformational Space Corp. to support the companies’ development of commercial systems that could transport humans and cargo to low-Earth orbit, the agency announced Feb. 1. Under the agreements, NASA will not provide any funding for the work under the agency’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Program, but...

SpaceDev has completed a series of three hot-fire tests of its hybrid upper stage motor, the company announced Feb. 1. The tests, conducted at the company’s test site in Orange County, Calif., demonstrated the ability to restart a partially spent motor grain and tested a new injector configuration. The motor is being developed as part...

Harris Corp. completed a pair of milestones for the U.S. Navy’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) program, Harris announced. Harris logged onto a Milstar satellite using an AEHF Navy Multiband Terminal prototype system onboard a platform simulating submarine conditions, and also demonstrated that its advanced antenna control unit can help track a satellite and maintain...

See World Satellites Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of FTS Group Inc., expects to post an increase of 35 percent to 38 percent in year-over-year top line sales for the month of January, FTS announced Feb. 1. “Our satellite television business is off to a great start for 2007,” Scott Gallagher, CEO of FTS, an...

French direct-to-home operator Canalsat ended 2006, its final year of competition with rival TPS, with nearly 3.5 million subscribers, a net increase of 272,000 compared with 2005, parent company Vivendi announced.   The two companies combined their operations Jan. 4 and now report nearly 5 million subscribers, making the new Canalsat the second largest satellite...

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. has been awarded a development contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) to continue work on a geostationary small satellite platform, the company announced Jan. 31. Under the contract, valued at 2.3 million British pounds ($4.5 million), Surrey will extend its work on the Geostationary Minisatellite Platform. Surrey began work on...

MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) received two advanced technology contracts from EADS Astrium to provide a pair of data reception and transmission subsystems, MDA announced. One of the advanced communication satellite solutions is for the German Ministry of Defense, while the second is for an advanced broadcasting solution for Eutelsat. The combine value of...

Telenor Satellite Services has added Inmarsat’s Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service as well as other satellite services to its offerings under its U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Technology Service contract, the company announced Feb. 1. Under the contract, awarded in 2000, Telenor provides satellite services to all U.S. government agencies and authorized government...

The schedule for the remainder of Sea Launch’s 2007 manifest remains uncertain following the loss of a Zenit-3SL vehicle and the SES New Skies NSS-8 satellite Jan. 30. A live Internet broadcast of the launch by Sea Launch was cut off as a fireball enveloped the platform seconds after the anticipated liftoff, though a video...

Arrowhead Wins $20 Million DISA Task Order Arrowhead Global Solutions Inc. received an order from the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to provide the U.S. Marine Corps with expanded commercial satellite capabilities.     Arrowhead, in conjunction with SES, will provide bandwidth availability, portability and mobility to support missions in the United States, Europe, Southwest...