Really Rocket Science

Dosvedanya Mio Bombino: Musical best wishes to astronauts Paolo & Aleksandr for ATV docking from Daniel Scuka on Vimeo.

Nice mashup by the ESA.

 Seattle, USA-based band Pink Martini have sent in a fantastic video greeting for the entire ISS crew and especially ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli, from Italy, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Kaleri as they get ready for today’s ATV Johannes Kepler docking. Lead singer China Forbes sends the group’s best wishes and she’s dedicated one of their favourite tracks, Dosvedanya Mio Bombino – a song about Russia and Italy – to the two astros in space. We’ve mashed up her greeting with some recent ISS and ATV footage, which we hope you’ll enjoy. Thanks, China, and thanks to everyone at Pink Martini for your support and encouragement! Music, Lyrics Copyright (C) Pink Martini – used with permission.

SatNews Publishers announces release of free online Satellite Industry Database, a digital tool designed for professionals that instantly and easily provides critical satellite company information.
[SatNews – 02/18/2011]

UK Satellite and Cable Broadcasters’ Group fights proposal by House of Lords Communications Committee to restrict advertisements on pay and free-to-air channels to seven ad-minutes per hour.
[Hollywood Reporter – 02/18/2011]

Eutelsat revenue growth across all businesses up 13.3% in first half of 2011, with group share of net income up 25%.
[PR Newswire – 02/18/2011]

SES to launch SES-4 and SES-5 satellites this year, to meet needs of the largest European Direct-to-Home (DTH) providers and fuel growth in Africa and the Middle East.
[Peace FM Online – 02/18/2011]

European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli gets photo of Arianespace 5 launch of ATV Johannes Kepler from International Space Station.
[SatNews – 02/18/2011]

Global Xpress deal a "win-win" for Inmarsat and iDirect.
[NSR – 02/18/2011]

Division of Ottawa company Calian Technologies signs US$15 million contract to provide antennas and rf systems to VT iDirect.
[Winnipeg Free Press – 02/18/2011]

Strongest solar flare in four years disrupts ground communications.
[9NEWS.com – Denver – 02/18/2011]

Echostar to take control of numerous Hughes satellite farms around the country as part of acquisition.
[Broadcast Engineering – 02/17/2011]

TerreStar Networks withdraws bankruptcy restructuring plan which would have given ownership to Echostar and other creditors.
[Denver Post – 02/17/2011]

Orbital awarded contract for SES-8 satellite by SES WORLD SKIES.
[Trading Markets – 02/17/2011]

Panasonic Avionics signs Letter of Intent with Scandinavian Airlines to deliver full broadband connectivity and mobile phone service on SAS’ domestic, pan-European, and intercontinental flights.
[SatNews – 02/17/2011]

Yahsat’s first satellite arrives successfully at launch site.
[zawya – 02/17/2011]

KVH unveils world’s smallest, most affordable maritime VSAT antenna, measuring just 14.5", providing download speeds as fast as 2Mbps on KVH’s proven mini-VSAT broadband network.
[SatNews – 02/17/2011]

SES Astra and Eutelsat both win long-term capacity deals in Italy and Germany, continuing to ramp up their capacity market rivalry.
[Satellite Today – 02/17/2011]

TeleCommunications Systems announces exclusive arrangement with Cisco to commercialize IT communication services on the World’s first space router.
[Marketwire – 02/17/2011]

EchoStar and Hughes combination expected to deliver substantial value to shareholders.
[Satellite Spotlight – 02/16/2011]

Ariane 5 launches second European Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) for servicing of the International Space Station, carrying aloft its heaviest payload ever (19,700 kg).
[SatNews – 02/16/2011]

Intelsat plans landmark African satellite launch, with New Dawn, the region’s first private sector communications satellite, to be launched from French Guiana March 29.
[Broadcasting Cable – 02/16/2011]

TeleCommunications Systems SwiftLink Tactical Transportable Tropo Solution receives 2010 Satellite Spotlight Product of the Year Award from TMC.
[SatNews – 02/16/2011]

Tennis enthusiasts across European Russia, Siberia, and Ukraine enjoyed coverage of Australian Open 2011 from leading Russian satellite broadcaster NTV-PLUS and Global Crossing.
[SatNews – 02/16/2011]

50 years ago NASA launched Explorer 9, a balloon satellite (satelloon), as U.S. raced to catch up to Soviet Union in space race.
[The Atlantic – 02/16/2011]

Globecomm Systems completes satellite uplink hub for Televisa at its Mexico City Broadcast Center.
[SatNews – 02/16/2011]

Boeing hands over first LightSquared satellite, SkyTerra 1, for service after post-launch testing is completed.
[Space Daily – 02/15/2011]

U.S. Air Force and Lockheed in talks over AEHF satellite, and financial fallout from engine failure preventing the satellite from reaching intended orbit.
Reuters – 02/15/2011]

NewCom international telemedicine project connects Haiti hospital with top doctors in U.S.
[MMD Newswire – 02/15/2011]

Blue Sky Network, which developed technology to pass packet-based data over Iridium satellites for tracking aircraft, finds other uses for its satellite technology.
[xconomy – 02/15/2011]

RRsat carries over 50 religious broadcast channels worldwide.
[PR Newswire – 02/15/2011]

Sky-Stream selects iDirect TDMA to power Apple TV platform in Dubai.
[Satellite Today – 02/15/2011]

Echostar to buy Hughes Communications for about $1.32B.
[Bloomberg – 02/14/2011]

$78 billion in additional Pentagon cuts:  diminishing demand for commercial SATCOM?  Maybe not.
[NSR – 02/14/2011]

Avanti Communications shares expected to soar as company is transformed by operations based on the new HYLAS 1 satellite, and its follow-on satellites to be launched.
[Sharecast – 02/14/2011]

New report by Global Industry Analysts projects world satellite transponders demand to exceed 7,150 36-MHz transponder equivalents by 2015.
[Benzinga – 02/14/2011]

Glonass-K replacement set for launch February 24.
[Satellite Today – 02/14/2011]

XipLink to provide bandwidth optimization technology to Middle Eastern Internet service provider Icces for Saudi Arabia-based network.
[Satellite Today – 02/15/2011]

Wireless advances could put end to new cell towers – small cubic antenna systems acting as outdoor femtocells could be backhauled by fiber or satellite.
[R&D Magazine – 02/11/2011]

WBMSAT PS satellite communications systems services

NASA’s Stardust-NExT: Valentine’s Night Comet Flyby. 

How did they do that? Math, kids. It’s all in the math.

Sure, it was a good day at the office for Apollo Management LP in the deal announced today, where EchoStar is buying Hughes Communications…

Apollo’s SkyTerra affiliate first bought into Hughes back in 2004, when then-owner DirecTV — frustrated in efforts to sell Hughes outright — agreed to strike a 50-50 joint venture with Apollo to run the business.

As part of that deal, Hughes was valued at $360 million and Apollo plunked down just $50 million in cash for the stake in Hughes. Then in 2006, Apollo bought out DirecTV for $100 million.

Today, at the price EchoStar agreed to pay of $60.70 a share, or $1.35 billion excluding debt, Apollo stands to make roughly $753 million, based on its 57.4% disclosed stake in Hughes as of the end of 2009.

Pretty crafty deal, as Hughes does very well with using satellite capacity to make money. They’ve designed and manufactured their own modems, and they’ve even launched their own spacecraft in the all-Ka-band Spaceway 3. EchoStar has excess capacity, thanks in part to digital compression over the years — and they probably leased too much capacity from SES over the last 8 years or so.

With AMC-5 at 79° West not being replaced (running-on-empty AMC-2 is in the slot now), and AMC-1 being replaced by  SES-3, which will not have a 26° CCW offset on the Ku-band side. What does that mean? All the Ku-band traffic on 79° West and 103° West is "in play" and may need to move. Hughes is in a good position to grab some business. Where’s that traffic going?

I’m thinking EchoStar stands to gain some long-term contracts for their FSS birds. Add to that the solid experience Hughes has had with Ka-band over the last couple of years, and you’ve got a good business-enhancing transaction here.

By the way, SES-3 will have cross-strapping between payloads, which nobody gives a hoot about in North America.

Make satcom services American again. We love you, Charlie!

Interested in government payloads hosted by commercial spacecraft? There’s a blog for that! That’s right, rocket scientists: Space News and Intelsat General put together a Drupal-based blog entitled "Hosted Payloads" last week. Good idea, but will you have enough content to sustain it?

 Satellite operators Intelsat and SES have been talking about it for years, so why not blog about it? Cisco’s IRIS is up, and CHIRP will be going up this year, with a second EGNOS payload on Sirius-5 to follow. Brilliant idea to get Intelsat to sponsor the "microsite."

The timing is actually pretty good. Today’s Wall Street Journal has a piece on space budgets and actually gives some ink to hosted payloads, with Intelsat saying it’s working on three hosted payloads…

Intelsat and other companies have also joined with some Pentagon offices to champion putting more "piggyback" military payloads aboard privately funded and operated satellites.

Such arrangements offer expanded surveillance and communication capabilities significantly faster than, and at a fraction of the cost of, building and launching military satellites. Intelsat has three such agreements in place with the U.S. government and is discussing several others, industry officials said.

What I find peculiar is the Pentagon is talking to two Luxembourg-based companies for hosted payloads. Why not talk to the home boys at U.S. Space LLC? I’d rather deal with Telesat, as they fly a WAAS payload on Anik F1R.

To really get a taste of the details and possibilities of hosted payloads, you should read the Jon Glass story in GeoPlace.com. Excellent summary…

 "It’s the speed and cost efficiency that is really driving the government’s interest in this," adds Jeff Foust, senior analyst with Futron Corp., a technology-management consulting firm that helped organize several government/industry workshops on hosted payloads. "There’s a steady stream of opportunities for hosted payloads, because you have 20 to 25 commercial GEO satellites being ordered and launched every year, plus you have special opportunities such as Iridium NEXT that have a much larger number of satellites in a global system."

Because hosted payloads are relatively new, developing a set of policies and procedures that make it easier for government agencies and the private sector to partner on projects is a challenge. This includes developing mechanisms that regulate contracts and pricing as well as enable federal agencies to take advantage of available opportunities. Because of existing regulations and bureaucratic barriers, government agencies can find it difficult to move at the same speed as the private sector.

A key purpose of hosted-payload workshops has been to give industry and government officials a forum to identify potential barriers and begin to develop solutions. The important thing, notes Foust, is that with the new U.S. space policy, government supporters of hosted payloads now have the official backing of the administration to pursue opportunities.

"It’s a trite phrase, but the use of hosted payloads has the potential to be a win-win," adds Foust. "It’s an opportunity for the industry to maximize potential revenue by making use of satellite capacity that otherwise might go unused. For the government side, it provides a greater degree of flexibility to get important payloads up faster and less expensively than the traditional way of doing business. There’s a great potential here to do more with less and provide some real savings to the taxpayers."

Oh, and SES WorldSkies has a blog now, too. Good luck commenting on that one. SEO, anyone?

Orbital Sciences will pay $10 million over several years for 20 percent of Iridium Next hosted capacity.
[Satellite Today – 02/04/2011]

Program problems and budget restrictions change thinking on how military space capabilities should be developed and deployed.
[Aviation Week – 02/04/2011]

KVH Industries completes major capacity increase across three key regions of its global mini-VSAT Broadband satellite communications network.
[SatNews – 02/04/2011]

Hughes Europe, subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems, sells seventh HX hub to international satellite Internet services provider Bentley Walker for Caribbean and South America.
[SatNews – 02/04/2011]

Leaks reveal Chinese-U.S. tensions over anti-satellite tests by both countries.
[Global Security Newswire – 02/03/2011]

Pentagon report warns that field of space debris is so dense that a single collision between satellites could set of an uncontrolled chain reaction capable of destroying the communications network on earth.
[The Telegraph – 02/03/2011]

SES WORLD SKIES signs capacity extension with TIBA to enable distribution of an expanding lineup across Latin America through 2030.
[SatNews – 02/03/2011]

Globalstar hails FCC decision to allow LightSquared to use mobile satellite spectrum for terrestrial-only devices as necessary and looks forward to similar decisions benefitting Globalstar and other mobile companies.
[IEWY – 02/03/2011]

Comtech EF Data and Tachyon to jointly develop airborne COTM solutions delivering the highest bandwidth airborne terminals available in the industry.
[SatNews – 02/03/2011]

Vizada to release new Viznet DVB-S2/ACM-based broadband platform.
[Satellite Today – 02/03/2011]

Gilat Satellite Networks selected to provide SkyEdge II broadband network to a defense agency for military communications.
[Defence Professionals – 02/03/2011]

Telespazio Argentina signs contract to provide Mobile Tele-offices using C-COM’s auto-pointing  iNetVu antenna systems to Argentina Ministry of Interior.
[SatNews – 02/03/2011]

Last minute deal saves Super Bowl telecast, temporarily ending dispute that had kept Fox programming off DirecTV’s system for weeks.
Connect Amarillo – 02/03/2011]

Independent global study confirms IsatPhone Pro as the ultimate handheld satellite phone.
[Business Wire – 02/03/2011]

u-blox introduces ultra-compact MAX-6 family of GPS modules.
[SatNews – 02/03/2011]

Israel and the European Space Agency sign cooperation agreement to identify common areas of mutual interest, notably in the area of space science and exploration.
[SatNews – 02/02/2011]

Russia loses contact with military satellite launched Feb. 1.
[GPS World – 02/02/2011]

Orbcomm’s last remaining AIS-capable low-Earth orbit satellite fails; AIS service down.
[Satellite Today – 02/02/2011]

Hughes Network Systems selected by Boeing to provide the Ground Communications Network for the MEXSAT Satellite Based Network system.
[PR Newswire – 02/02/2011]

First flight of Russia’s Soyuz-ST-B carrier rocket from the European space center in French Guiana is set for August 31, 2011.
[SatNews – 02/02/2011]

Orbital Sciences contracts with Thales Alenia Space for Iridium Next systems integration and testing.
[Trading Markets – 02/02/2011]

German satellite service provider atrexx finalizes largest ground services contract, for connecting a major European country’s embassy sites in Africa and the Middle East with VSAT technology.
[SatNews – 02/02/2011]

Frequency Electronics receives major contract from Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems to supply on-board timing and frequency generation components for MEXSAT system.
[Globe Newswire – 02/02/2011]

KVH unveils new KVH CommBox(tm) Ship/Shore Network Manager at Digital Ship Scandinavia Conference.
[SatNews – 02/02/2011]

Comtech Xicom TWTAs to feature touch-screen control interfaces.
[Satellite Today – 02/02/2011]

Looking to aid Egyptians?  Perhaps you want to "Buy This Satellite."
[Time – 02/02/2011]

Marine Instruments selects Quake Global modems for satellite tracking of vessels and buoys in the open ocean.
[Business Wire – 02/02/2011]

Dish Network to buy hybrid satellite and terrestrial communications company DBSD for $1 billion.
[Denver Business Journal – 02/01/2011]

Raytheon completes acquisition of Applied Signal Technology.
[Satellite Today – 02/01/2011]

India’s space agency focuses on manned spaceflight, lunar exploration, and planetary probes, and considers a Moon mission.
[TMCnet – 02/01/2011]

Globecomm Systems wins $2.6 million contract to provide turnkey RF electronics install for multiple Telemetry, Tracking & Control Earth stations.
[SatNews – 02/01/2011]

Optus orders Irdeto conditional access technology to extend customer access to its satellite digital-only and HDTV channels in Australia.
[Satellite Today – 02/01/2011]

Stratos introduces BGAN Humanitarian Pricing plans for first responders.
[PR Newswire – 02/01/2011]

PolarSat introduces 8-PSK modulation capability on VSATPlus3 modem.
[Satellite Today – 02/01/2011]

Metamaterials hold promise of lighter, more efficient antennas for satellites.
[R&D Magazine – 01/31/2011]

European Space Agency investigates novel self-aligning flat antennas.
[R&D Magazine – 01/31/2011]

UK Space Agency selects Amsat-UK to provide its FunCube hardware board sets for the agency’s first satellite UKube-1.
[Satellite Today – 01/31/2011]

Gilat’s Spacenet receives multi-year contracts for over 27,000 lottery sites.
[Trading Markets – 01/31/2011]

Integral Systems Incorporated wins $13 million plus contract modification from US Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center to consolidate satellite ground systems.
[SIGNALSCAPE – 01/31/2011]

Hughes Network Systems receives TMCnet Satellite Spotlight Product of the Year Award.
[PR Newswire – 01/31/2011]

WBMSAT PS satellite communications systems services

Good luck trying to shut down the Internet in Egypt. You can’t close off the satcom links — especially Thuraya, Iridium, Globalstar or Inmarsat satellite phones.

Although the Internet remains locked down in Egypt, Al-Najjar has been participating in the lively stream of posts on Twitter using the hashtags #Jan25 and #Egypt.

Some of those postings suggest the use of satellite Internet services offered by companies such as Thuraya, Iridium and Inmarsat.

"While in conversation last night, two guys said that they will have the ability to buy one of those phones and transmit," Al-Najjar said. "They were given 18 [phone] numbers outside Egypt to send [photos] to."

Foreign media posted in Cairo published dramatic photos on Friday of protestors battling police firing tear gas and using water cannons to disperse crowds. But absent Internet or mobile phone access, it’s much more difficult for most Egyptians to self-publish, an act that has become an increasingly important component of breaking news coverage.

Satellite Internet services aren’t cheap, however, compared to wired Internet access. Al-Najjar said a satellite-capable phone could cost around US$1,300 in Egypt.

A Thuraya customer service representative said on Friday there were no issues with its service in Egypt, but she did not know if there was an uptick in traffic coming from the country.

Satellite services are not dependent on local carriers for connectivity. So someone in Egypt, for example, could snap a photo of the protests and upload it to a computer connected to a BGAN satellite modem.

As long as the person has aimed the portable modem properly at the satellite, the person should have broadband Internet access, said a sales representative based in South Africa for GlobalCom, which sells portable Internet access for Iridium, Thuraya, Inmarsat and Globalstar Satellite.

 Who started this mass protest stuff? The Ukrainians with their Orange Revolution!

Orbital Sciences signs systems integration and test contract with Thales Alenia Space, prime contractor for Iridium NEXT.
[SatNews – 01/28/2011]

Avanti wins two new contracts to further develop and demonstrate technology to deliver fideo to the edge of terrestrial networks using its HYLAS 1 satellite.
[SatNews – 01/28/2011]

Boeing successfully conducts first over-the-air ground test of Ka-band satellite communications phased-array antenna system for enabling wideband SATCOM on aircraft.
[SatNews – 01/28/2011]

Russian unmanned cargo spacecraft lifts off, bound for international space station.
[SatNews – 01/28/2011]

DigitalGlobe collaborates with Satellite Sentinel Project to deliver first images of evolving situation in Sudan following historic vote on independence.
[SatNews – 01/28/2011]

Ziplink announces that OmniGlobe has deployed its advanced optimization technology to reduce bandwidth requirements while improving customer’s satellite broadband performance.
[SatNews – 01/28/2011]

MSCI’s announcement of 78+ satellite constellation "COMMStellation" of 12Gb per satellite for global broadband reminiscent of ambitious LEO plans of the past – is the plan justified by the numbers?
[NSR – 01/27/2011]

LightSquared ambitious plan for nationwide terrestrial/satellite LTE mobile network gets] boost with FCC decision to allow use of handsets that are not satellite-capable.
[The Register – 07/27/2011]

ViaSat is awarded first Defense Security Service Award of Excellence in Counterintelligence.
[SatNews – 01/27/2011]

Japanese unmanned robot cargo ship arrives at international space station.
[Space.com – 01/27/2011]

International Datacasting receives contract from Canadian Department of National Defence for continued operation of Canadian Forces Radio and Television.
[SatNews – 01/27/2011]

Russian astronomers predict slim possibility of Earth strike by asteroid Apophis on April 13, 2036.
[SatNews – 010/27/2011]

Tesacom receives Iridium certification for maritime satellite communication and tracking system.
[PR Newswire – 07/27/2011]

Orange Business Services to provide and manage a VSAT satellite system developed for marine communications for the diving support vessels of Crest Subsea.
[Satellite Spotlight – 07/27/2011]

Air Force awards Raytheon and Lockheed Martin contracts to provide designs for new "Space Fence" radar system that can detect much smaller satellites and debris than present system.
[Information Week – 07/27/2011]

KVH promotion offers free small screen HDTV to boat owners purchasing certain marine satellite HDTV systems.
[SatNews – 01/27/2011]

Russian space experts point to gross underfunding of space programs and advocate teaming up with India and Kazakhstan.
[SatNews – 01/27/2011]

Sirius XM asks FCC to end its subscription price cap.
[Satellite Today – 01/27/2011]

US Air Force Academy’s FalconSAT-3 satellite provides unique joint service with United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
[SatNews – 01/26/2011]

Blue Sky Network introduces HawkEye 5300, a dual-mode asset tracking device using both GSM and Iridium satellites for 100% global coverage.
[Trucking Info – 01/26/2011]

TVN signs with Teracom to supply headend technology for Sweden’s roll-out of DVB-T2 scheduled for the end of 2012.
[Satellite Today – 01/26/2011]

ITT announces successful completion of environmental tests of the next-gen weather satellite instrument for the GOES-R program.
[SatNews – 01/26/2011]

Iridium signs partner agreements with five new companies including KORE Telematics.
[Telecom Engine – 07/26/2011]

Shaanxi Broadcast & TV Network Intermediary Company begins trials of Irdeto’s Cloaked CA, a conditional access system to be part of transitioning two million subscribers from analog to digital services.
[SatNews – 01/26/2011]

SES WORLD SKIES announces order from Artel under U.S. FCSA program to provide C-band capacity in support of government initiatives.
[Business Wire – 01/26/2011]

Economics of Earth Observation market distorted by reliance on a few large users – government and military organizations.
[NSR – 01/25/2011]

New MST-100M man-pack satellite terminal from Agile Communications features fully motorized platform with auto-acquisition.
[EON – 01/25/2011]

LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja attempts to reassure authorities that modification of its license to allow terrestrial as well as satellite offerings will not interfere with GPS services.
[telecoms – 01/25/2011]

Orbit wins US follow-on order worth $7.2m to install dozens of its OrSat Ku-band systems on the undisclosed customer’s fleet of ships.
[Globes – 01/25/2011]

Iridium to establish maritime service centers to support Iridium OpenPort products worldwide.
[Satellite Spotlight – 01/25/2011]

NASA announces contest for best images of currently orbiting NanoSail-D solar sail.
[SatNews – 01/25/2011]

Lockheed Martin plans to increase affordability and efficiency of space system development with new advanced technology and virtual simulation facility, Collaborative Human Immersive Laboratory.
[SatNews – 01/25/2011]

Broadpoint signs new contracts with global shipping company V.Ships Offshore to provide Ku- and C-band services for the company’s worldwide operations.
[SatNews – 01/25/2011]

Non-profit Space Data Association announces offering of conjunction assessment processing to a majority of all operational geosynchronous satellites.
[Satellite Spotlight – 01/24/2011]

Airborne is awarded contracts for solar array panels for first 14 satellites of the Galileo program.
[SatNews – 01/24/2011]

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited to conduct an experiment, launching a smartphone into orbit to see what it is capable of.
[Satellite Spotlight – 01/24/2011]

Hughes Communications dominant stakeholder Apollo appoints Barclays Capital to begin sales process.
[Fierce Telecom – 01/22/2011]

Global Navigation Satellite System industry faces challenges in using multiple systems interchangeably as number of satellites is projected to far exceed the "optimal intersection" of 70 postulated by head of Galileo Operations and Evolution department of ESA.
[Inside GNSS – January/February 2011]

WBMSAT PS satellite communications systems services

Zenit-3SB rocket launches Elektro-L1 meteorological satellite from Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.
[SatNews – 01/21/2011]

Azerbaijan experts from Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies travel to U.S. to discuss development of its first national satellite.
[ABC.AZ – 01/21/2011]

EUMETSAT now delivering globally direct readout of data from instruments on board its Metop polar-orbiting satellite via the Advance High Resolution Picture Transmission system.
[SatNews – 01/21/2011]

Indian Air Force to get dedicated communication satellite this year.
[The Economic Times – 01/21/2011]

Satellite Broadband Ireland inks over EUR 5 million utility deal with Eutelsat.
[RTT News – 01/21/2011]

SatCom Group changes its name to One Horizon Group.
[Satellite Today – 01/21/2011]

ATCi answers demand for disaster recovery services voiced at Pacific Telecommunications Council Conference in Hawaii January 15-17, 2011.
[PR Newswire – 01/21/2011]

Avanti UK wins key broadband satellite testbed contract from UK’s Technology Strategy Board.
[ISPreview – 01/21/2011]

International Communications Group Datalink-100 Receives Iridium Certification & ARINC AQP Approval.
[Trading Markets – 01/21/2011]

Space Florida gets $48 million launch contract to provide launch services for federal government.
[SatNews – 01/21/2011]

United Launch Alliance DeltaIV Heavy rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Space Launch Complex with payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.
[SatNews – 01/20/2011]

TanMar Communications, a provider of communication solutions to the oil and gas and maritime industries and government agencies deploys Spacenet satellite equipment and services.
[TMCnet – 01/20/2011]

Norsat acquires military antenna developer Sinclair Technologies for $19.2 million.
[Satellite Today – 01/20/2011]

Broadband satellite communications company Hughes Communications looking for new owner.
[SatNews – 01/20/2011]

Arinc completes Air Force space weather sensor upgrade at 29 locations of the Ionospheric Data Network.
[Satellite Today – 01/20/2011]

Microsat Systems Canada announces development of COMMStellation, a polar communications satellite constellation of 78 microsatellites.
[SatPRNews – 01/19/2011]

NASA to unveil new rocket integration and launch facility at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
[Satellite Today – 01/19/2011]

Worldwide Satellite Telecommunications Industry report published by Barnes Reports features 2010 current and 2011 forecast estimates on size of industry for 47 largest countries in world.
[Satellite Spotlight – 01/19/2011]

A communications cross-link between missile defense satellites tested successfully after activation by U.S. companies Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.
[UPI – 01/19/2011]

NanoSail-D nanosatellite successfully ejected from Fast Affordable Scientific and Technology Satellite – ham operators asked to listen for signals and report.
[SatNews – 01/19/2011]

GMPCS joins with Global Marie to deploy Speedmail, a fast, reliable and easy-to-use satellite phone email service.
[Satellite Spotlight – 01/19/2011]

FCC authorizes Sirius Radio to temporarily establish 2,000-watt transmitter in Hawaii.
[ABC News – 01/19/2011]

OmniAccess S.L. launches BroadBEAM Ultra, latest addition to its maritime VSAT broadband services, based on iDirect’s next generation DVB-S2 Evolution platform.
[SatNews – 01/19/2011]

Integral Systems’ SATCOM Solutions Division General Manager To Discuss Naval Maritime Satellite Communications Requirements At The 2011 Naval And Maritime SATCOM Workshop.
[TheStreet – 01/19/2011]

Stratos Global reaches mileston of 2,000 IsatPhone Pro activations.
[SatNews – 01/19/2011]

WTA releases new white paper "How to Buy Satellite Capacity."
[worldteleport.org – 01/19/2011]

Hughes Network Systems ships more than 327,000 broadband satellite terminals in 2010, the most ever in one year.
[SatNews – 01/19/2011]

Berry Smnutny, chief executive of Germany’s largest satellite company OHB-System, suspended for criticizing the E. U. Galileo satellite project.
[New York Times – 01/18/2011]

U.S.A.F. 50th Space Wing completes phase on of two phase Global Positioning System constellation expansion.
[SatNews – 01/18/2011]

Iridium signs agreements with 17 service partners to participate in the company’s Network Quality Guarantee program.
[Satellite Today – 01/18/2011]

T-HT of Croatia selects Eutelsat satellite neighborhood at 16 degrees East to extend reach of its MAXtv pay-TV platform to homes across Croatia.
[Satellite Spotlight – 01/18/2011]

RRsat selected to distribute BabyTV to North America.
[PR Newswire – 010/18/2011]

Hughes ships its 2.5 millionth broadband satellite terminal.
[PR Newswire – 01/18/2011]

Indian Space Research Organisation plans three major satellite launches in first quarter of 2011.
[IBN Live – 01/17/2011]

SES ASTRA expands further into Central and Eastern European market, with three transponders to be used by Bulgarian DTH operator Satellite BG.
[SatNews – 01/107/2011]

COM DEV of Canada is awarded US$9 million to provide equipment for a military communications satellite.
[Ottawa Citizen – 01/17/2011]

Ya, that’s German for "Galileo is a stupid idea." Who said it? The CEO of the prime contractor to build the system, OHB Technology. How’s he doing today? Fired. That’s right, Berry Smutny was quoted by Wikileaks via the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten…

"I think Galileo is a stupid idea that primarily serves French interests."

"…doomed to failure…"

"…waste of EU taxpayers’ money…"

That was in October, 2009. They were awarded the contract about a year ago (January, 2010).

They’re doing a fine job in Europe. Galileo was to cost $4.5 billion, but now approaches $26 billion. Outstanding.

Glad SES is "contributing" to this fine system.

Perhaps the honesty by-product of the whole Wikileaks thing is good for business.