[Via Satellite 04-27-2015] The satellite industry is laden with talent, and in the May 2015 issue of Via Satellite Magazine, we spoke to leaders from all verticals who have made the industry an even more impressive field. Via Satellite’s Excellence Awards covers the industry from big satellites to small, and from newcomers to seasoned veterans.

Via Satellite also delved into the nascent industry of commercial drones, which increasingly seems a little closer to becoming a part of everyday life, and how the satellite industry will play a critical role. Furthermore, in an in-depth interview with Samer Halawi, CEO of Thuraya, Via Satellite’s May issue uncovers the story of how a troubled “on-the-ropes” company turned around to attain a $140 million increase in revenue in 2014, with a Calculated Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 72 percent in its equipment business.

As a preview of the recently released issue, we bring you the Top 10 Quotes of Via Satellite May:

1. “Satellite is going to play a major part in a lot of the very long-range, beyond-line-of-sight operations where there may not be cellular infrastructure or it may be at a higher altitude and you need to be able to fly well beyond the line of sight where the current operators and radio systems are capable of reaching.” — Jesse Kallman, head of global business development and regulatory affairs at Airware.
2. “We need to keep in mind the failures the satellite industry has had since the late 1990s. We don’t want to build a service which, by the time it is running, it is already obsolete. Instead, we are looking for a disruptive, forward-looking network that caters to the needs of customers in the future.” — Samer Halawi, CEO at Thuraya.
3. “The proliferation of companies building and launching nanosatellites with a range of sensor types, combined with what governments are already doing, is going to reap huge benefits in the future. The ecosystem has definitely evolved since QuakeFinder successfully built and launched the first commercial triple CubeSat (QuakeSat) over a decade ago.” — Tom Bleier chief technology officer at QuakeFinder.
4. “We are literally carving out digital highways and zones of the sky that represent this new transportation infrastructure that can be translated not only into a map that human beings can read and see … but also that is machine-readable and can be directly interpreted and conformed to by drone autopilots in an aero-robotics network.” — Jonathan Evans, CEO at Skyward.
5. “Our network at that point in time had not seen any investment for over five years. We had a lot of equipment that was obsolete and needed refurbishment. We put in place an aggressive network upgrade plan to address that. We also had to work with vendors to bring in new products. All of this had to be done under a different mentality and with a lot of creativity in order to find the funds needed for all the upgrades and product introductions.” — Samer Halawi, CEO at Thuraya.
6. “Ultimately, IFC has to serve the primary mission of airlines — which is to fly paying passengers. Probably by the end of this year there will be hard evidence of what the survey data indicates — that connectivity does influence choice of airline.” — Mark Dankberg, chairman and CEO at ViaSat.
7. “That’s the conundrum: how you send data back with its gigabytes, and how you can send that back quickly and efficiently over a line such as a satellite link.” — Chris Blackford, operations director at Sky-Futures.
8.  “It doesn’t matter your age or experience level, everyone can bring something to the table. People come from all walks of life, and those experiences can help in some of the most esoteric of tasks.” — Justin Gensel, systems engineer at Honeywell Technology Solutions/Rising Engineer Award Winner.
9. “We’re not just a mix of niche businesses from the past; we are redefining the overall telecom landscape.”  — Pradman Kaul, president at Hughes Network Systems.
10. “The space industry owes much to Generation X and the baby boomers, who have brought numerous technological advancements and evolution to the industry. My generation, the Millennial, will continue to bring more innovation. We are open to new ideas, flexible and able to adapt to meet the industry’s future demands.” — Shame’er Shah bin Kamal, engineer at Measat.