Satnews Daily Current Satellite News   
July 02, 2009

Happy Fourth Of July To All Who Love Freedom...
July 4th is a special occasion in the United States, a day steeped in a fierce history of independence and freedom. We honor those who have served and continue to serve, and we honor our country.   Full Story

TerreStar-1 Threads Its Way Into Orbit Via Arianespace Ariane 5 ECA
On Wednesday, July 1st, for its third mission of the year, Arianespace successfully launched into geostationary transfer orbit the largest commercial satellite ever launched, TerreStar-1, for North American operator TerreStar Networks Inc., via a rare, afternoon liftoff.   Full Story

SIRIUS FM-5 Maneuvering Admirably
Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications (Nasdaq:LORL) announced that SIRIUS FM-5, a satellite that it provided to SIRIUS XM Radio, is performing post-launch maneuvers according to plan.   Full Story

MEASAT Slip-Slides to New Slots
They make it sound so easy but imagine MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn. Bhd. announced today that the MEASAT-3a satellite has been successfully moved to the 91.4° E Orbital Slot in preparation for In-Orbit testing.   Full Story

Vietnam To Put Their First SatReceiving Station Into Action
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in Vietnam stated the country's first satellite image receiving station will be inaugurated in early July — this being reported by the Vietnam News Agency.   Full Story

Cassini Captures: Heck Of A Halo
The Cassini spacecraft looks down on Titan's north pole and unveils the moon's upper-most atmospheric hazes, creating the appearance of a halo around Saturn's largest moon.   Full Story

Koreasat-2 Going... Going... Gone To Asia Broadcast Satellite
KT Corporation and Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) announced that they have signed an agreement for the sale and purchase of the Koreasat-2 satellite.   Full Story

Lots Of Information To Be Devoured From EUMETSAT's Full Council Plate
EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, held its 67th Council meeting in Darmstadt, Germany, on June 20th and July 1st.   Full Story

Pretty Powerful + Plentiful Pulsars Pondered
With NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, astronomers are receiving their best look at those whirling stellar cinders known as pulsars.   Full Story

Luscious LRO Lunar Looks
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has transmitted its first images since reaching lunar orbit on June 23rd.   Full Story

World View From WorldView-2 To Be Accomplished On October 6th
DigitalGlobe (NYSE: DGI) has announced that the Company's WorldView-2 high-resolution, 8-band multi-spectral satellite is scheduled to launch on October 6th, 2009, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.?   Full Story

atrexx Is All A-Twitter...
atrexx is set to use Twitter as part of their plans for the promotion and development of their global satellite marketplace.   Full Story

Thrane & Thrane SwiftBroadband Thriller For Aero-SB Lite
Thrane & Thrane has received Type Approval from Inmarsat for its latest SwiftBroadband solution Aero-SB Lite to be combined with the HGA 6000 High Gain Antenna.   Full Story

Optus Optimistic—Sets D3 Satellite Schedule
Optus confirmed the Company's state-of-the-art D3 satellite is scheduled for launch in mid-August 2009.   Full Story

This Orange Peals into the Tour de France 2009
Once again, Orange customers will be able to follow this year's Tour de France in three ways — via their TVs, PCs and mobile phones.   Full Story

Galileo Global Nav System Examined By European Court Of Auditors
The Galileo program was launched in the mid 1990s with the aim of establishing a European Global Navigation Satellite System.   Full Story

Financially Speaking... Globalstar, Inc...
Globalstar, Inc. (Nasdaq:GSAT) has completed a financing of approximately $738 million.   Full Story

Moving On Up... At SIA... Iridium's Bethea-Murphy...
Iridium Satellite LLC (Iridium) announces that Donna Bethea-Murphy, vice president of Regulatory Engineering for Iridium, was elected chairman of the board of the Satellite Industry Association (SIA), the leading trade association for the satellite industry.   Full Story

RapidEye Signs On MDA Federal
RapidEye has a new strategic partnership agreement with Washington, DC, area based MDA Federal (formerly Earth Satellite Corporation — EarthSat) to be one of their distributors in the United States.   Full Story

MTN Entreats Entities With A Federal Feel
MTN Satellite Services, a SeaMobile company, has formed MTN Government Services, Inc. (MTNGS) to offer expanded integration services and “One Stop” turnkey solutions across multiple satellite technologies to meet the critical requirements of government agencies.   Full Story

Northrop Grumman's Campuses' Show A Great Deal Of Maturity With CMMI Recertification
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has announced the Company's campuses in Boulder and Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Azusa, California, have successfully sustained their Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI(r)) Maturity Level 3 rating, as approved by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI).   Full Story

General Atomics SAR/GMTI Radar WIns The Day With Sky Warrior UAV Tests
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA ASI) announced that its Lynx Block 30 Synthetic Aperture Radar/Ground Moving Target Indicator (SAR/GMTI) radar has completed two successful test flights on a Sky Warrior Block 1 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in support of the planned Quick Reaction Capability (QRC) deployment of the first four Sky Warrior aircraft under the U.S. Army Extended Range/Multi-Purpose (ER/MP) UAV Program.   Full Story

Moving On Up... At Globecomm Systems...
Globecomm Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: GCOM) has appointed Keith Hall President and Chief Operating Officer of the Company, effective July 1, 2009.   Full Story

The AV Nano NAV Nod From DARPA
AeroVironment, Inc. (AV) (NASDAQ: AVAV) was awarded a Phase II contract extension in April from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to design and build a flying prototype for the Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) program.   Full Story

Boeing Brings Alliant Techsystems Into Play For Ullage Reasons
Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) was selected by The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) to manufacture the upper stage ullage motors for the new Ares I launch vehicle.   Full Story

No Gaseous Grounding For Endeavour — Launch Set
A test fueling of space shuttle Endeavour's external tank revealed no gaseous hydrogen leaks, verifying recent repairs were successful, NASA managers confirmed during a Wednesday afternoon news conference at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.   Full Story

digiGO! — Solutions of the SAFEVIEW Kind For Sat + Cable + IP DTV
Anevia, a video service infrastructure provider and Secuenzia, a specialist in digital TV solutions and services for the telecommunications and broadcast sectors, have announced the interoperability of Anevia’s solutions with Secuenzia’s SAFEVIEW to provide digital TV solutions with higher performance, scalability, flexibility and security.   Full Story

digiGO! — Pure Pressure On AT&T + Verizon From Comcast
Comcast’s announcement of its High-Speed 2go service, which bundles Clearwire’s WiMAX service with its own broadband products, will put new pressure on competitors AT&T and Verizon, according to analyst firm Strategy Analytics.?   Full Story

digiGO! — OmniBus @ IBC2009 (Stand 8.D41)
OmniBus Systems will be showing the latest version of iTX, the production and transmission solution, at IBC2009.   Full Story

digiGO! — TelVue Nets New Nat'l Data Center In Philly
TelVue Corporation (OTC.BB: TEVE) has debuted its new National Data Center at Cross Connects Solutions in Philadelphia, PA.   Full Story