WBMSAT Satellite Industry News Bits 01/20/2012

U.S. Air Force launches the fourth Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) military communications satellite.
[Aviation Week – 01/20/2012]

Greece’s main telecommunications operator OTE to sell its communications satellite HellasSat to face cash crunch brought on by euro-zone debt crisis.
[Total Telecom – 01/20/2012]

Unnamed Pentagon official says it will propose cancelling a Northrop Grumman satellite, an Army missile, and a light attack aircraft for the U.S.A.F.
[SatNews – 01/20/2012]

Russian Space Agency Roscosmos in talks with European and U.S. partners on creation of manned research bases on the Moon.
[SatNews – 01/20/2012]

United Nations telecom meeting approves next generation IMT-Advanced mobile technology that will make devices 500 times faster than 3G and is expected to show up on consumer’s smart phones in two years.
[R&D Magazine – 01/19/2012]

MilSpace 2012 to be held in Vienna, Austria on March 27th and 28th, bringing together internationally-recognized Military Space experts from across Europe and the U.S. to discuss crucial topics, global issues, and partnering between the military and private sector in space ventures.
[SatNews – 01/19/2012]

Eutelsat suspends presence of Roj TV on its satellites following verdict of Court of Copenhagen that Roj TV is an instrument of the Kurdistan Workers Party with respect to their financial, structural and operational ties.
[Market Watch – 01/19/2012]

Emergency.lu, a rapid communications solution for global disaster relief and humanitarian missions, is deployed for the first time in South Sudan by SES partners SES TechCom, Hitec, and Luxembourg Air Rescue.
[SatNews – 01/19/2012]

Hughes Communications gets license to offer National Long Distance (NLD) services in India, allowing it to provide satellite backhaul services to Telecom service providers of Cellular, Media & FM, and Broadband fixed and Wireless.
[Telecom Tiger – 01/19/2012]

SkyBitz makes available satellite asset tracking solution that works anywhere on the planet using a modem jointly developed by SkyBitz and Iridium, and using the iridium network.
[SatNews – 01/19/2012]

TCS will showcase mission-critical wireless data solutions at AFCEA West 2012.
[Market Watch – 01/19/2012]

NewSat Limited signs $7.5 million of new contracts in first half of fiscal 2012 to provide satellite communication services across Australasia and the Middle East.
[SatNews – 01/19/2012]

Carl Icahn buying up LightSquared debt, as the company fights the GPS industry for FCC approval for its network, which had received approval from a GPS industry group in 2004 as being able to co-exist with GPS when operated under proposed limits.
[Forbes – 01/19/2012]

Recognizing serious risk from space debris, U.S. will work with Europe towards an international space code of conduct that does not restrict U.S. national security interests in space – Secretary of State Clinton’s press release.
[Global Post – 01/18/2012]

U.S. Air Force authorizes production of a ninth WGS communications satellite pursuant to an agreement between the Air Force and Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and New Zealand.
[Daily Breeze – 01/18/2012]

Nine national security spacecraft ranging from spy platforms to navigation birds, communication satellites, and weather observatories to be launched on Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets following a U.S. Air Force $1.5 billion booster purchase. [Spaceflight Now – 01/18/2012]

Solar array problem on Telstar 14R/Estrela do Sul-2 satellite results in $132.7 million insurance payment to Telesat.
[Space News – 01/18/2012]

SpaceX delays NASA Falcon 9, Dragon test flight scheduled for February 7.
[Satellite Today – 01/18/2012]

SES and MagtiCom, the Georgian mobile and telecommunication company, launch MagtiSat, Georgia’s first domestic DTH satellite platform.
[SatNews – 01/18/2012]

Major African satellite communications provider Intersat Africa signs new partnership with major teleport services provider Belgium Satellite Services to expand operations and service delivery in the African and Middle East markets.
[Developing Telecoms – 01/18/2012]

Globecomm gets contract to install its crew Wi-Fi service on 40 ships in the Schulte fleet of German shipowner Reederei Thomas Schulte.
[SatNews – 01/18/2012]

LightSquared claims that GPS interference tests were “rigged,” using selected outdated GPS devices certain to fail.
[Wireless Week – 01/18/2012]

NSA certifies second-generation ViaSat IPS-250 encryption software.
[Satellite Today – 01/18/2012]

DARPA’s Galileo program seeks to connect ground-based telescopes and astronomical communities with precise fiber optic controls which could enable identification of retired satellites from which antennas or arrays might be harvested and repurposed for new satellites.
[SatNews – 01/17/2012]

U.S. adds Canada and four other countries as partners who will contribute $620 million toward $1 billion price of a ninth WGS satellite.
[Chicago Tribune – 01/17/2012]

Dish Network, having recently added spectrum with acquisitions of DBSD and TerreStar, could be a target of AT&T now that merger with T-Mobile has fallen through.
[Business Week – 01/17/2012]

O3b enters partnerships with series of industry leading vendors including General Dynamics, SATCOM Technologies, Comtech EF Data, Gilat, and previously announced partner ViaSat, to provide comprehensive range of customer access systems delivering throughputs from 1Mbps to 1 Gbps.
[SatNews – 01/17/2012]

After a year in service, German Earth observation satellite TanDEM-X along with its twin TerraSAR-X have completely mapped the entire land surface of Earth for the first time; data is being used to create world’s first single-source, high-precision, 3D digital elevation model of Earth.
[SatNews – 01/17/2012]

Azerbaijan is committed to launching three satellites in the next three years. [Trend – 01/17/2012]

O3b, backed by Google, to launch its revolutionary new satellite-broadband service in 2013.
[gigaom – 12/17/2012]

Kratos to complete development and fielding of RAIDRS system for Air Force Space Command and Missile Systems Center.
[Market Watch – 01/17/2012]

SES-4, which will be largest and most powerful in the SES fleet, arrives at Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan.
[SatNews – 01/16/2012]

Top government officials say there are “no practical solutions” to GPS interference problems caused by LightSquared’s planned mobile broadband network.
[Wireless Week – 01/16/2012]

SIS LIVE, operator of largest satellite uplink fleet in Europe, signs contracts for additional capacity on two Eutelsat satellites.
[Market Watch – 01/16/2012]

Abertis Infraestructuras, after selling 16% stake in Eutelsat, and having at present 33% of Hispasat, wants to take control of Hispasat.
[Bloomberg – 01/14/2012]

Mobile satellite communications growth surge precipitated by need for greater throughput and need to communicate anywhere, anytime – Ka band provides much higher throughput, but provides challenges in antenna tracking.
[Milsat Magazine – January 2012 issue]

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