Again, Another First for Orbital Express Satellites The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) said the Orbital Express system, a program to validate spacecraft servicing capability led by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has performed a fully-autonomous "fly-around and capture" of its NextSat client spacecraft, marking another industry first for the innovative program. During the five-hour test on June 16, Boeing's Autonomous Space Transport Robotic Operations (Astro) servicing spacecraft used its onboard cameras and advanced video guidance system to separate from, circle and re-mate with the Ball Aerospace NextSat client spacecraft. The test primarily used passive sensors with no active exchange of relative navigation information or involvement by ground controllers.
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Alliant Techsystems Acquires Swales Aerospace Alliant Techsystems (ATK), which produces solid rocket motors for the U.S. Space Shuttle fleet and structures for the International Space Station (ISS), has taken ownership of Swales Aerospace, a provider of satellite components and subsystems, small spacecraft and engineering services for NASA, the Department of Defense and commercial satellite customers. The acquisition was subject to standard federal regulatory review and approval from the majority of shareholders in the employee-owned company. The Swales facility in Beltsville, Maryland is now the headquarters of ATK's Space Division within the Mission Systems Group.
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Astrium to Rocket Tourists into Space . . . by Jet European satellite and rocket system maker Astrium has unveiled a revolutionary new aircraft/spacecraft for space tourism at a special event ahead of the Le Bourget Airshow in Paris. Development of this hybrid vehicle is expected to begin in 2008 with a first commercial flight possible by 2012. The Astrium space jet, which externally resembles a corporate jet, is designed to travel 100 km into space giving its four passengers more than three minutes of "zero G" or weightlessness.
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BC Partners Takes Ownership of Intelsat UK-based private equity firm BC Partners has purchased 76 percent of Intelsat, Ltd., the world's largest commercial satellite operator, for $5.03 billion in cash. BC Partners, which has its business focus in Europe, will also take on Intelsat’s debt load of $11 billion and a further $3.9 billion in debt. The firm received $5 billion in financing commitments from Credit Suisse (which advised Intelsat on the transaction), Banc of America Securities and Morgan Stanley.
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Bigelow Aerospace's Genesis II Space Module Deploys Successfully
A camera on the end of one of Genesis II's forward array peeks back towards the aft panels.
Bigelow Aerospace has established contact with its second pathfinder spacecraft, Genesis II, launched earlier from Yasny, Russia. Mission Control in North Las Vegas made first contact with the inflatable satellite and expects more extensive data and imagery in the coming days. Bigelow said initial data suggests sufficient voltage powering up Genesis II’s batteries as well as expected air pressure.
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Boeing Completes First Wideband Global Satcom Satellite The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) has completed integration and test of the U.S. Air Force's first Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) satellite, bringing satellite communications services one step closer to U.S. soldiers. WGS will augment and eventually replace the Defense Satellite Communication System and the important Global Broadcast Service function currently provided by UHF Follow-On satellites. It also will reduce the government's reliance on commercial satcom services.
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Cluster Science Satellites Keep Dancing in Space Four sturdy European science satellites past their prime continue to boogie in the solar wind they’ve been studying for the past seven years. The solar wind (the perpetual stream of subatomic particles given out by the Sun) can damage communications satellites and power stations on Earth. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) four “dancing” satellites-- Salsa, Tango, Rumba and Samba – comprising its Cluster Mission are also studying the behavior of near-Earth plasma, an extremely variable state of matter, composed of ions and electrons but electrically neutral, spread over large distances.
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Consumer Internet Access to Drive Broadband Satellite Market Growth International market research and consulting firm NSR said service revenues for broadband satellites will increase at an average annual rate of over 11 percent over the coming five years with the fastest growth coming from consumer-class satellite broadband Internet access services such as North America’s WildBlue and HughesNet. These two services are seeing rapid subscriber growth, which in turn translates into greater service revenue. NSR also said single site satellite broadband services have had success in markets outside of North America, like Thailand and Australia.
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Delayed Technology from Russia Slows Completion of South Korean Space Center Completion of South Korea’s $323 million Naro Space Center on an island 485 kilometers south of Seoul is being held back by delays in the transfer of Russian technology. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), South Korea’s equivalent of NASA, said construction of the space center is about 95 percent complete with only the launch pad needing to be built. Naro will also house a main control center, a radar tracking station and rocket assembly and booster test facilities.
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DirecTV-10 Satellite Launches in June
Directv 10. (Boeing photo)
DirecTV-10, a satellite of leading US pay TV provider DirecTV Group, Inc., will be orbited in June by a Proton-M launch vehicle. Russia’s Khrunichev State Space Scientific Production Center said a Briz-M booster on a Proton-M carrier rocket will put DirecTV-10 into orbit. The booster is now at the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.
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Echostar, Liberty Media Reportedly is Bidding for Intelsat Liberty Media and EchoStar Communications Corp. are reportedly bidding for Intelsat according to media reports and a source close to the deal. Intelsat is the world’s largest satellite operator with a fleet of 51 satellites in operation, after its merger with PanAmSat last year. In April, it was reported that a consortium of private equity investment firms placed a bid for US $ 5.5 Billion for Intelsat.
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ESA, Thales Alenia Space Sign Contract for GMES Sentinel-1 satellite The European Space Agency (ESA) and Thales Alenia Space have signed a $307 million contract for the design and development of Sentinel-1, the first Earth observation satellite to be built for Europe’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program. The ESA Sentinels, composed of five satellites, constitute the first series of operational satellites responding to the earth observation (EO) needs of GMES, a joint initiative of the European Commission and ESA. Sentinel mission requirements focus on the continuity of existing services exploiting EO data and satisfying user requirements derived from GMES applications.
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Final Day of ISCe Stress Importance of Commercial Satellite Industry and Government Partnership
Maj. Gen. James Armor, Director, National Security Space Office.
The third and final day of ISCe was devoted to sessions as part of the Military and Government Requirements Forum. Several panels tackled various aspects of the military satellite market including one on the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Transformational Communications Architecture and another on "Intelligence and Communication—You Can’t Have One Without the Other!" The Intelligence and Communications panel was chaired by Maj. Gen. James Armor, Director, National Security Space Office and featured a distinguished panel that included Denis Curtin, Chief Operating Officer, Xtar; Harry Gatanas, Executive Vice President, Strategic Programs Group, SI International; Paul Millingon, Business Development Director, Paradigm Secure Communications; Cdr John Roesli, C3F, J6-US Navy; and Nelson Santini, Director of C4ISR Business Development, Datapath.
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ILS Books over $1 Billion in Launch Orders for Proton Breeze M International Launch Services (ILS) has brought in more than $1 billion in new firm launch orders for the Proton Breeze M vehicle since the beginning of 2007. ILS has exclusive rights to market the Proton vehicle worldwide to commercial satellite operators. Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center of Moscow, one of the cornerstones of the Russian space industry, manufactures the Proton and is a partner in ILS.
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Intersputnik Accepted into Regional Telecommunications Body The 37th regional meeting of the heads of the Regional Commonwealth for Cooperation in Communications (RCC) held recently in Latvia unanimously approved Intersputnik’s application to join the RCC as an observer. RCC is a regional organization of telecommunication administrations that coordinates the efforts in telecommunications and postal service in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). RCC has a status of observer with United Nations organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the World Postal Union (WPU).
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In the Works: a More Powerful and “Prettier” ISS This month will see the International Space Station (ISS) receive more electrical power for future projects and look a whole lot “prettier”. The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis recently docked with the ISS after a two-day chase carrying with it a new segment for the station that includes a third set of solar arrays to provide more power for additional modules. It was the first space shuttle flight this year Atlantis was to have originally launched last March but dents to its main booster rocket from a sudden hailstorm caused a two-month delay to ensure the spacecraft’s safety.
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Ion Media Extends Distribution Deal with SES Americom SES Americom, an SES company (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg stock exchanges:SESG), said that Ion Media Networks (AMEX:ION) has extended its distribution agreement, firmly positioning the largest television station group in the U.S. for further growth in the cable and broadcast markets. The programming distribution agreement extension between SES Americom and Ion Media is scheduled to run through the life of the AMC-1 satellite, which was launched in 1996. The hybrid C- and Ku-band spacecraft is located at 103 degrees West, where it is home to national television networks broadcasting to thousands of cable headends that reach tens of millions of homes throughout the country.
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ISCe 2007 Address Key Issues and Trends on the Commercial, Government and Military Satellite Market The ISCe 2007 Conference and Expo held from June 5-7 in San Diego, California addressed key issues and trends in the commercial, government and military satellite markets. The ISCe 2007 Conference went off to a good start with the Global VSAT Forum (GVF)/ World Teleport Association (WTA) Workshop held on the first day on “Profiting from Hybrid Solutions.” The whole day workshop tackled important issues on the role of satellite technology in hybrid networks.
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ISCe 2007 Bests Previous Year Turnout; Military Satcom and Vertical Market Focus Drives Attendance With a major focus on the role of satellites in naval warfare, the sixth annual ISCe conference in San Diego last week brought together military planners, launch companies and equipment manufacturers to examine the ever-increasing integration of satellites into the global communication network. During the course of the three-day conference, speakers discussed topics ranging from the challenge of beaming command instructions between orbiting satellites to listening to XM radio with a small receiver positioned in a south-facing window of a commercial aircraft. The rapid evolution of the role of satellites in all communications was summed up by one speaker who said his company's goal is that "someday, each satellite in space is going to be just another node on the Internet."
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Italy's Cosmo-SkyMed Scientific Satellites to Launch June 7 on Delta II
Cosmo SkyMed satellite.
Italy’s Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation (Cosmo) SkyMed, which consists of four SAR (synthetic aperture radar) dual use satellites, will launch June 7 on board a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Cosmo-SkyMed program was developed by Thales Alenia Space for the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the Italian Ministry of Defense. It is an end-to-end Earth observation dual-use (civil and military) system composed of four medium-sized satellites and supporting ground stations for orbit control systems and data reception and processing.
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ITU, ICO, and CBC Turn to Satellite Communications for Global Response to Disasters The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has reached an agreement with ICO Global Communications and the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) to utilize satellite communications for improved global response in the face of natural disasters. Natural calamities have spread mayhem around the world, severely impacting the lives of people and the environment. In 2006 alone, 21,800 people succumbed to natural disasters, with 95 per cent of those killed residing in least developed countries.
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Lockheed Martin Moves to Space Segment Competition of TSAT Program Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) has completed a successful System Design Review (SDR) of the TSAT Mission Operations System (TMOS) with the U.S. Air Force. The two-day event concluded the system review of TMOS architecture and requirements allocation for this critical element of the Global Information Grid. The successful SDR completion also paves the way for the next critical phase of the TSAT program: the Space Segment final competition and award.
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McCain: Public Safety Groups Need More Radio Frequencies
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has urged the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to allocate a further 30 MHz to the 24 MHz to be devoted to public safety groups, including first responders. The FCC intends to establish a national public safety organization to manage a block of spectrum in the upper portion of the 700 Megahertz (MHz) band. The 24 MHz is part of a spectrum block totaling 108 MHz that analog TV broadcasters have returned to the government because of an industry wide shift to digital TV mandated by law.
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Measat-3 Satellite to Distribute History Channel and Crime & Investigation Network Measat Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd has signed an agreement with AETN All Asia Networks Pte, Ltd (AAAN), a joint venture of A&E Television Networks and Astro All Asia Networks, for the distribution of The History Channel and Crime & Investigation Network. The channels will be distributed to pay TV operators across Hong Kong, Taiwan and South East Asia on the recently launched Measat-3 satellite. AAAN will launch The History Channel and Crime & Investigation Network throughout the region in Q2 and Q3 2007.
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MicroSat Systems Supports Student-led Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program MicroSat Systems, Inc. (MSI) is joining forces with America’s most ambitious student satellite team to develop and fabricate the spacecraft bus for a ground-breaking new biosatellite. The Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program is a collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Georgia Institute of Technology Space Systems Design Laboratory. The goal of the Mars Gravity program is to investigate how Martian gravity -- about one-third that of Earth -- will affect mammalian health, helping to pave the way for human missions to Mars and beyond.
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"Misty" Stealth Spy Satellite Program Cancelled?
Mike McConnell, U.S. Director of National Intelligence
Doubt lingers whether the unnamed multibillion-dollar program director of national intelligence Mike McConnell said he had “killed” is really the secret “Misty” Stealth Reconnaissance Imaging Spacecraft program. McConnell did not specify the program he cancelled when he abruptly shifted to the topic while talking about diversity in the workplace before an intelligence community audience. He did, however, confirm a multibillion-dollar program had been yanked.
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Mobile Satellite Services Moving into Mainstream with New Products and Services esearch firm NSR estimates the global mobile satellite services (MSS) market will grow from 1.8 million in-service units in 2005 to more than 6.7 million units at the end of 2012. L-band equipment will dominate the market, while Ku-band and, to a lesser extent, C-band will grow incrementally. One indicator of the health of the MSS sector is the entrance of new players such as Inmarsat, TerreStar, ICO and MSV in the satellite handheld business.
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MSS Market to be Worth $500 Million by 2010 The global mobile satellite services (MSS) market is expected to jump 43 per cent to $500 million by 2010 from the present $350 million, believes Inmarsat president and COO Michael Butler. He also noted the market is growing at a tremendous pace and Inmarsat hopes to take a 10 percent share by 2010. Butler made these comments at ceremonies where Inmarsat signed a multi-year deal with Axiom Telecom, a Dubai-based retailer and distributor of mobile communications products, to manage the global distribution of Inmarsat's mobile and fixed satellite phones. Inmarsat will soon launch a new service that will cover the Middle East, Asia and Africa using Inmarsat-4 satellite.
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NASA, 13 Space Agencies Join in Historic Space Cooperation Agreement The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and 13 of the world's top space agencies have agreed to work together and coordinate future space missions. They did not, however, agree to create a single global space program. The partner space agencies include ASI (Italy); BNSC (UK); CNES (France); CNSA (China); CSA (Canada); CSIRO (Australia); DLR (Germany); ESA (European Space Agency); ISRO (India); JAXA (Japan); KARI (South Korea); NASA (USA); NSAU (Ukraine) and Roscosmos (Russia).
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Nine Teams Vie for $2 million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge Nine contenders, including aerospace veterans, a father and son team building spaceships in its garage and a company established solely to win the competition, have signed up for the second staging of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge (NG-LLC). The challenge is the centerpiece of the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup and Holloman Air and Space Expo. The NG-LLC, sponsored by NASA's Centennial Challenges Program, is designed to accelerate commercial development of technology that can ferry cargo and humans between the Moon's surface and lunar orbit.
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Raytheon Wins $1 Billion NMT Satellite Communications Contract The Raytheon Company has won the $1 billion Navy Multiband Terminal (NMT) satellite communications program over Harris Corporation. The U.S. Department of Defense said Raytheon will be the prime contractor for NMT, which will provide communications terminals for the U.S. Navy and allies like the U.K., the Netherlands and Canada. The terminals will be deployed on ships, submarines and on-shore installations, and it is intended to work with a wide variety of military communications satellites.
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Rejoinder on Recent Satnews Stories on NPOESS and MEASAT 1R Satellite Delay Last week, we published two stories on June 11—one on the NPOESS program entitled “U.S. Cedes to Europe Leadership Role in Monitoring Global Warming via Satellite” and “MEASAT To Launch Fourth Satellite.” In the interest of balance, we would like to provide some additional information on these articles that were not available to us at the time of writing. In the MEASAT story which dealt with the delays in the launch of the MEASAT-1R satellite, MEASAT’s CEO Paul Brown-Kenyon clarifies that the delays were caused not by “shortage of components for the satellite, but a delay in the launch vehicle availability.”
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Satellite Capacity Sales Biggest Growth Segment for Satellite Industry
Launch of the U.S. military's NFIRE satellite from the civilian MARS facility.
Satellite capacity sales from both government and commercial customers will remain the main revenue engine for the satellite industry in the next two to three years, according to a joint survey by Hannover Fairs USA, Inc. and Futron Corporation at the recent International Satellite Communications exchange (ISCe 2007). Continuing a trend identified in previous Futron/ISCe surveys, satellite capacity sales represent the largest area of anticipated new business. More than 40% of all respondents forecast that their biggest growth will come in this area from both government and commercial customers.
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Satellite TV Provider DISH Network to Carry MGM Movies on VoD Platform EchoStar Communications Corporation (Nasdaq:DISH) and its DISH Network satellite TV service have entered into an agreement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) to carry the studio's current and catalog movie titles on its Video On Demand (VoD) platform, “DISH On Demand,” and its Pay-Per-View services. DISH Network's DISH On Demand service gives customers the power to enjoy movies and other programs whenever they want and is currently available on the DISH Player-DVR 508, DISH Player-DVR 510, DISH Player-DVR 522, DISH Player-DVR 625, and one of the industry's top-rated HD receivers, the ViP622 DVR. DISH Network's DVRs enable subscribers to further customize viewing by taking advantage of popular features such as pause live TV, fast forward including a 30-second skip forward and rewind.
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Satellites Set to Dominate HDTV Market
DirecTV-10 broadcasts HDTV programming in the USA. (Boeing photo)
Satellites will become the most important mode of receiving high definition TV (HDTV) programming over the next four years. IMS Research forecasts the global HDTV market to reach almost 150 million households by 2011, with some 40 percent of these households receiving HDTV programming via satellite. IMS said the growth in satellite HDTV households in the next four years will be driven by the US and Western Europe. In Western Europe, the slow growth of digital cable in recent years has helped position satellite as the most common method of receiving pay-HDTV.
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Sea Launch Good to Go; January Failure Caused by Foreign Object Debris The Sea Launch Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) has concluded its review of the findings of an interagency CIS Joint Commission, which has been investigating the cause of the unsuccessful launch last January 30. All systems have been cleared for operations, pending completion and tests of all repairs on the Launch Platform. The commission concluded on March 12 that the failure initiated in the liquid oxygen (LOx) turbopump section of the RD-171M main engine.
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SES Americom Launches IP-PRIME IPTV Solution SES Americom, an SES company (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg exchanges: SESG), has launched its Internet protocol television (IPTV) solution, IP-PRIME, which it claims is the most comprehensive end-to-end and turnkey IPTV solution for telecommunications companies. The entire solution is based on the MPEG-4 digital video standard that offers improved video quality together with greater bandwidth efficiency over the MPEG-2 standard. The MPEG-4 standard makes IP-PRIME suitable for enabling networks to accommodate numerous applications and features, as well as accommodate the explosive growth in high definition television (HDTV) channels.
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SES Americom Selects iDirect to Support REDiSat Network iDirect Technologies, a subsidiary of Vision Technologies Systems, Inc., and SES Americom said the iDirect iNFINITI satellite broadband hardware and platform has been selected to support SES Americom’s REDiSat Network. The REDiSat Network is a satellite-delivered emergency communications solution designed to keep businesses up and running even when terrestrial network connections and phones are out. REDiSat offers a low-cost, customized solution and an alternative to terrestrial networks for both first responder, emergency response teams and any enterprise with critical communications needs.
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SS/L Awarded NASA Contract for Landsat Study
SSL 1300 bus. (SSL photo)
Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications (NASDAQ:LORL) and a provider of high-power commercial satellites, said the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO) recently awarded it a delivery order for a Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) Spacecraft Accommodation Study. The Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The satellites provide imagery that is used in agriculture, geology, forestry, regional planning, education, mapping, and global change research.
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TCS Wins $2.3 Million Satcom Contract TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (TCS) (NasdaqGM: TSYS), a provider of mission-critical wireless communications, has won a $2.3 million contract to provide satellite hardware to the Program Management Defense Communications and Army Transmission System (PM DCATS) team at Ft. Monmouth, N.J. This is the fifth award TCS has received under the World-Wide Satellite Systems (WWSS) contract vehicle. Revenues are expected to be realized during Q2 and Q3 of 2007, due to the 97-day period of performance requirement.
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TerreStar-1 to Launch in Late 2008
Terrestar-1. (SSL photo)
TerreStar Networks, Inc., a majority owned subsidiary of Motient Corporation (MNCP), expects delivery of its new satellite, TerreStar-1, from Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) in August 2008. TerreStar remains on schedule to meet its operational milestone of November 2008. TerreStar plans to build, own and operate North America's first 4G integrated mobile satellite and terrestrial communications network that will provide universal access and tailored applications throughout North America over conventional wireless devices.
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The Second Moon Race: It’s the USA vs. China vs. India vs. . . . Nigeria?
Chang E Lunar probe.
The Second Race to Land Humans on the Moon that’s just gotten off the starting blocks pits the USA against a motley—and unlikely—cast of newbie competitors. China? They can do it—get to the Moon, that is. They’ve got the cash and the technology and could probably, NASA warns, land men on the Moon before the USA in the next decade. India? They’ve got more remote sensing satellites than the USA.
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U.S. Cedes to Europe Leadership Role in Monitoring Global Warming via Satellite Europe is expected to take the lead in using satellites to monitor the Earth’s climate and global warming following a Bush administration decision to greatly curtail the U.S. role due to soaring development costs for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). Sources in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) said a dramatic escalation in the cost of building and launching the six planned polar orbiting NPOESS satellites that will monitor world climate and weather was the major reason for the U.S. scaling back its role. Instead, four satellites are to be launched but will only do weather forecasting, a downgrade that critics of the move are describing as a crisis.
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