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Satnews Daily Current Satellite News   
August 27, 2008

NASA's GLAST Is Past
NASA's newest observatory, the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, began exploring the universe in high-energy gamma rays. The spacecraft and its revolutionary instruments passed their orbital checkout with flying colors. However, word comes that NASA announced today that GLAST has actually now been renamed the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. \   Full Story

HD TV Isn't Blu
Discussions have taken place regarding what is going to happen with the arrival of Full HD television service, and what, if any affect it will have on the sales of Blu-ray discs or players. Experts from the Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices service have conducted a report entitled “Full HD: Blu-ray Camp Claims Broadcasters ‘Mislead’ Consumers.”   Full Story

UAV Deconfliction Demo'd By Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin's (NYSE: LMT) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Airspace Management System (UAMS) solved one of the more difficult challenges facing military services and their industry partners — the Company has successfully demonstrated the ability to deconflict groups of in-flight UAVs during a test near Pittsburgh, Pennyslvania.   Full Story

DataPath To Continue Field Services In Iraq
DataPath, Inc. has been awarded $1.9 million to continue providing field services for DataPath Deployable Ku Band Earth Terminals (DKETs) at a key communications hub in Iraq. The DKET systems were built and installed by DataPath and are used by the U.S. military as critical satellite communications (SATCOM) hubs that deliver high-bandwidth capabilities on the battlefield.   Full Story

MEASAT + GlobeCast Bringing History In HD To China
AETN All Asia Networks Pte. Ltd. (AAAN), a joint venture of A&E Television Networks (AETN) and ASTRO All Asia Entertainment Networks Limited (ASTRO), will launch The History Channel HD™ in Hong Kong and Singapore, the debut of The History Channel HD brand in the Asia-Pacific region. The launch will occur on September 1st in Singapore on StarHub and in Hong Kong later that month.   Full Story

Opportunity Knocks — Backs Out Of Martian Crater
NASA's Mars Exploration rover Opportunity is heading back out to the Red Planet's surrounding plains nearly one year after descending into a large Martian crater to examine exposed ancient rock layers. Having completed its job in the crater, Opportunity is now preparing to inspect loose cobbles on the plains. Some of these rocks, approximately fist-size and larger, were thrown long distances when objects hitting Mars blasted craters deeper than Victoria into the Red Planet.   Full Story

McCain, Hutchison + Vitter Request White House To Delay Shuttle Dismantling
From a blog at the OrlandoSentinel.com, we learn the Senator John McCain, joined by Republican colleagues Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and David Vitter of New Orleans, sent a letter to President Bush this week, saying that in light of tensions with Russia, the White House should tell NASA to halt any further dismantling of the shuttle infrastructure for at least a year to keep open the possibility of more shuttle flights beyond 2010.   Full Story

Cassini Scopes Janus
On a high-inclination orbit of Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft gazes down at the north polar region of Janus. This view looks toward Janus (179 kilometers, or 111 miles across) from a perspective 72? N of the moon's equator. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 14, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers.   Full Story