AsiaSat Signs Vietnam DTH Deal

AsiaSat signed a capacity deal with Vietnam Multimedia Corp. (VTC) for multiple Ku-band transponders on AsiaSat 5, the operator announced.

VTC will use the capacity to support a new premium DTH service in Vietnam in early 2010. AsiaSat 5 will distribute up to 30 HD and 70 SD television channels to households in Vietnam

Booz Allen Hamilton Wins Military Space Mission Support Contract

Booz Allen Hamilton was awarded a four-year $38.4 million contract to provide launch and test range system engineering and integration support to the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles, Booz Allen Hamilton announced.

Booz Allen will lead a team, which includes Lockheed Martin and Arinc, in providing the required support to modernize the spacelift range enterprise by putting structures, processes and tools into place that will aim to increase the reliability, maintainability, availability, and dependability of the operating systems.

The contract also aims to provide a risk reduction and capability maturation program to develop and maintain the current and future architectures of communications and weather assets for space missions, which are currently located at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla. and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

Com Dev Wins Broadband Satellite Switching Order

Com Dev International has been awarded a $7 million contract from an unidentified commercial customer to develop technology on a broadband communications satellite, the Ontario-based satellite company announced.

Com Dev will manufacture and deliver the waveguide and coaxial switches for the commercial satellite customer by the summer.

Eutelsat Inks New Italy DTT Deal

Eutelsat signed a capacity contract with Elettronica Industriale, the network operator of the Mediaset Group in Italy, for capacity on the Atlantic Bird 3 satellite. Elettronica Industriale will use the capacity secure channel distribution to digital terrestrial television (DTT) transmitters across Italy.

Eutelsat’s Atlantic Bird 3 satellite was first selected by Elettronica Industriale in March 2006 as the primary distribution platform to ensure nationwide delivery of channels to DTT towers. The two transponders leased by Elettronica Industriale host four multiplexes, which include free-to-air and pay-TV content and are uplinked from its teleport in Milan.

Gilat Provides Broadband Network in West Africa

Gilat Satellite Networks was awarded a contract from STL Ghana to provide its SkyEdge 2 broadband satellite network to serve STL Ghana’s customers throughout West Africa.

Gilat will deliver a network comprising of two SkyEdge 2 hub stations and close to 1,000 VSAT terminals to STL Ghana, which will be used by West African enterprises, health care organizations and financial services firms. The network includes interactive data applications such as videoconferencing, virtual private networks, Voice-over-IP services, IP multicasting and broadband Internet connectivity.

Harris Supplies U.S. Military with Satellite HF Radios

Harris Corp. received a $228 million order from the U.S. Marine Corps to provide Falcon 2 AN/VRC-104 high-frequency satellite radio systems for use in U.S. military all-terrain vehicles as part of its HF radio contract program.

The AN/VRC-104 is a vehicular transceiver and amplifier equipped with an AN/PRC-150 Type-1 certified HF radio. Harris has delivered more than 10,000 radio systems to the U.S. military under its HF radio program.

Intelsat Sells Ku-Band in the United Arab Emirates

Etisalat UAE signed a multi-year contract with Intelsat for Ku-Band capacity on the Intelsat 15 (IS-15) satellite. Etisalat will use IS-15 to expand its enterprise network platform beyond the United Arab Emirates and provide higher-bandwidth broadband services to enterprise customers throughout the Gulf region.

IS-15, launched in November, is expected to begin service in the first quarter and replace Intelsat 709.

Northrop Grumman Selected to Build NASA GPM Mission Reference Unit

Northrop Grumman has been selected by NASA to supply a scalable space inertial reference unit for its Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission.

The inertial reference system supplies rotation rate data that enables the stabilization, pointing and attitude control of satellites and space vehicles. For the GPM mission, the scalable unit will be installed on NASA’s GPM Core Observatory satellite.

The Core Observatory, which will serve as the reference standard for precipitation estimates from other GPM constellation spacecraft, is scheduled to be launch July 21, 2013.

SES Astra Signs Broadcast, Broadband Deals

SES Astra has partnered with Bulgarian telecom operator Neterra to offer contribution services to broadcasters in Bulgaria and the Balkan region. Neterra will use capacity at SES Astra’s 31.5 degrees East orbital position to provide broadcasters with an optimized solution to deliver their content to cable and terrestrial headends in the region. The services will be uplinked from Neterra’s teleport in Sofia, Bulgaria, and include multiplexing, encoding and encryption of the signal. The first broadcaster to use the service is the Bulgarian channel TV 7.

Separately, SES signed a deal with Intersat Africa to bring its satellite broadband service, Astra2Connect, to the Middle East. Intersat Africa will market Astra2Connect in Middle Eastern countries and offer four different download packages with speeds up to 2 megabits per second.

It is the second service distribution agreement that SES Astra has signed with Intersat Africa, a provider of satellite-based Internet services based in Kenya, for broadband services on Astra 3B.

SS/L Builds Nimiq 6 for Telesat

Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) has been contracted to build the Nimiq 6 satellite for Telesat.

The Ku-band satellite will be based on SS/L’s 1300 spacecraft bus.

Nimiq 6 is fully leased to Bell TV and will aim to provide Direct-to-Home HDTV and advanced video services in Canada from the 91 degrees West orbital slot.

Thales Alenia Space, Orbital Sciences Contracted to Build Broadband GEO Satellite

Thales Alenia Space and Orbital Sciences won contracts to build a new geosynchronous communications satellite for OverHorizon.

Both Thales Alenia Space and Orbital will share responsibilities as co-prime partners. The satellite will carry an on-board processing payload provided by Thales Alenia Space, mounted on a Star 2.3 satellite platform provided by Orbital.