Really Rocket Science

Americom Government Services (AGS) has been chirping about its "hosted payload" for a while now. It’s scheduled to launch in 2010, and the contract is worth about US$65, which isn’t chump change. What I think made the deal happen is the relationship between SAIC and the AGS CEO, who worked at SAIC for ten years.

Some may argue that AGS has an excellent relationship with the U.S. Government, especially with the Army and NASA. Others counter with Intelsat’s ability to lease more space segment. Why? Because they’ve got the inventory. You can’t sell what you don’t have. Can you make more of it? Yes, you can.

Today’s news from Australia about a US$165 (A$231) deal for a "piggyback payload" for the Australian Defence Force on a future Intelsat spacecraft launching in 2012 ought to spark a ton of chatter:

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) will spend more than $200 million to boost the global communications capabilities of its ships, aircraft and troops.

In a deal worth $231.64 million, the ADF has agreed to purchase the specialised UHF (ultra high frequency) communications package on a Intelsat satellite, which is set for launch in 2012.

The satellite will provide Australian ships, aircraft and troops with an advanced global communications capability.

Intelsat chief executive David McGlade said the contract represented a milestone in the development of hosted payloads that support long-term government needs.

"As this ADF program demonstrates, every commercial satellite going into orbit creates opportunities for governments to deploy mission-critical capabilities, with significant cost benefits and quicker time to in-orbit operations," he said.

The ADF has a growing reliance on satellite communications to run operations in theatres such as Afghanistan, and the UHF band is used widely by the military because of its adaptability to small, mobile terminals used by ground, sea and air forces.

Intelsat vice-president for hosted payload programs Don Brown said the deal would provided the ADF with a cost-effective, near-term solution for reliable UHF tactical communications.

Of course, the WSJ had a "heads up" on this deal, especially with regard to market impact:

The agreement is an important element of Intelsat’s bid to expand its share of the fastest growing part of the commercial satellite industry: supplying bandwidth to the Pentagon, other federal agencies and foreign governmental entities. The arrangement also could set a precedent for how the U.S. military will acquire commercial satellite capacity in the future, particularly with increased deployment of U.S. and foreign troops in Afghanistan.

As the operator of the world’s largest commercial satellite fleet, Bermuda-based Intelsat already has a robust government business. But instead of continuing to provide services to such users on a short-term, spot basis as has been the traditional pattern, the arrangement announced Monday establishes an important new benchmark. It dedicates part of a big satellite that is still under construction for use by the Australian Defence Force for 15 years.

The company said the satellite, another portion of which it hopes to lease in the same way, is expected to be launched in 2012. The majority of the satellite’s capacity, however, will be marketed to corporate customers under the usual terms.

"This is strategically important to us," Intelsat Chief Executive Dave McGlade said in an interview, noting that revenue at Intelsat General Corp., the company’s governmental-services unit, rose 23% in the last quarter. Mr. McGlade and his managers have worked hard in recent years to improve relations with government customers internationally, and to offer new ways to help meet the Pentagon’s communications requirements. He said Intelsat officials also have broached the idea of supplying imagery "and other types of sensors" to the U.S. military by using commercial platforms.

Wow, Intelsat General’s revenues are up 23% last quarter. Is AGS doing this well? I don’t think so; nothing found in the SES earnings highlights.

Nice PSLV launch the other day. The report, via PTI:

Giving the much needed fillip to its defence surveillance capabilities, India today successfully placed into orbit an Israeli-built all-weather spy satellite but not before some "anxious moments" prior to the launch caused by a technical glitch which had threatened to stall the mission.

The 300 kg RISAT-2, which will also help tackle infiltration and terror activities, was shot into space by ISRO’s workhorse PSLV-C12 rocket 19 minutes after it blasted off from the spaceport here as scheduled at 6.45 AM, making India the fifth country having such a satellite.

But the launch was preceded by "anxious moments" during the 48-hour countdown for the ISRO team after an umbilical connector from PSLV-C12’s top got detached from the launch vehicle and about half-a-dozen others were "thrown out".

The last minute snag was overcome with the ISRO team managing the crisis making up the six hours of countdown time and setting everything right.

"With that condition, we could not not have gone on with the launch," ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair later said. "The final moments of the launch were more thrilling than a cricket match as we hit a few boundaries and bowled some googlies." The PSLV-C12, on its 15th mission, also launched RISAT-2’s co-passenger micro-educational satellite ANUSAT into orbit. A jubilant Nair described the RISAT-2 as a "new year gift" which would be an "asset" to the country as it worked in a mircowave band that would enable it to see through clouds and during night. 

Here’s the video report:

Another brilliant brand from ASTRA: YahLive, a joint venture with Yahsat:

SES ASTRA has entered into a partnership with the Arab satellite operator Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat) to create a new company operating under the YahLive brand that will offer Direct-to-Home (DTH) television capacity and services to more than two dozen countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South West Asia, a large region mainly including the Gulf states and the Maghreb.  

YahLive will offer DTH satellite services to free-to-air and pay-TV broadcasters in this region. It will own and commercialise 23 BSS-transponders on the Yahsat 1A spacecraft to be positioned at the 52.5 degrees East orbital position and operating in the Ku-band frequency. The satellite, procured from a consortium of EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space, is currently under construction and is scheduled to be launched by the fourth quarter of 2010.

Yahsat is a private joint stock company based in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and owned by Mubadala, the investment arm of the government of Abu Dhabi.

Read that press release as if it were a hip-hop rap, yah.

But since this is a "partnership," you’ve got to compromise. Mubadala gets its way. I suppose pissing off Eutelsat is worth it.

The week’s news, courtesy of Bill McDonald…

Fox Pan American Sports to launch Spanish-language HD channel on Intelsat network.
[SatNews – 04/17/2009]

ASTRA signs reseller agreement with Towercom of the Czech Republic and Slovakia for its ASTRA2Connect broadband service.
[SatNews – 04/17/2009]

ATCi digital broadcast system combining MPEG4 and DVB-S2 designed for local channel and/or DMA extension enables cable operators to offer HD channels to all of their extended DMAs at great cost savings.
[SatNews – 04/17/2009]

Inmarsat completes acquisition of Stratos Global Corporation.
[SatNews – 04/16/2009]

Boeing ships IndoStarII/ProtoStar II satellite to Baiknour Cosmodrome for preparation for launch in May.
[SatNews – 04/16/2009]

Lockheed Martin is awarded multi-million dollar contract by SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation of Japan to build JCSAT-13, to be launched in 2013.
[PR Newswire – 04/16/2009]

Eutelsat moves Kabelkiosk digital cable platform to Eurobird 9A satellite.
[Satellite Today – 04/16/2009]

SpaceX tapped by Argentina’s National Commission on Space Activity for two launches aboard the Falcon 9 medium-to-heavy lift vehicle.
[SatNews – 04/16/2009]

Iridium announces certification of EMA Group’s BlueTraker Long-Range Identification and Tracking ship terminal to provide identification and tracking services over the Iridium satellite network.
[PR Newswire – 04/16/2009]

Sea Launch initiates countdown to launch of Telespazio’s SICRAL 1B satellite on April 20.
[SatNews – 04/16/2009]

WTA’s Members Forum on March 23 brought together executives of satellite carriers and teleport companies to discuss conflicts and suggest resolutions to prevent damage to the complex, profitable relationship between them – white paper to be published by WTA in second quarter.
[SatNews – 04/16/2009]

RaySat Broadcasting Corporation contracts with Intelsat to enable delivery of AT&T CruiseCast mobile TV service for family vehicles.
[Digital Facility – 04/15/2009]

SatLink acquires SES Astra 4A capacity to launch African DTH platform.
[Satellite Today – 04/15/2009]

TCS receives U.S. Army contract worth $14.9m to provide transportable ground terminals.
[Satellite Today – 04/15/2009]

Intelsat named Operator of the Year at 2009 SatCom Africa conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.
[SatNews – 04/15/2009]

Comtech EF Data wins $2.1m order for satellite communications equipment to upgrade existing battlefield systems to operate on Wideband Global Satcom system.
[SatNews – 04/15/2009]

The Internet Innovation Alliance, and the MSS & ATC Coalition of satellite companies, submit recommendations on how to best provide broadband to un-served and under-served areas in U.S. in hopes of earning broadband stimulus funding.
[Washington Business Journal – 04/15/2009]

China launches navigational satellite COMPASS, second in a series of as many as 30, to provide Chinese global positioning services.
[SatNews – 04/15/2009]

Canadian provider Juch-Tech signs contract with Viasat to expand VSAT services to Africa.
[Satellite Today – 04/14/2009]

China Satellite Communications Corp. is merged into China’s Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. as planned by the State Council, or Cabinet, of China.
[SatNews – 04/14/2009]

Second advanced EHF military communications satellite built by Lockheed Martin successfully completes environmental testing.
[PR Newswire – 04/14/2009]

Swe-Dish receives FCC license to operate its Drive-Away CCT120 on U.S. satellites.
[Satellite Today – 04/14/2009]

New Dawn Satellite Company, joint venture between Intelsat and South African investor group, awards launch contract for New Dawn satellite to Arianespace.
[SatNews – 04/14/2009]

Crawford Satellite Services enters Asian broadcast market, delivering All Sports Network, a live sports channel, in HD to Asian audiences.
[Satellite Today – 04/14/2009]

New U.S. rules allow U.S. companies to establish fiber-optic and satellite links to Cuba, and provide services directly to Cuban citizens.
[The Miami Herald – 04/13/2009]

PG&E considers beaming megawatts of solar power from space to earth; asks state regulators for permission to sign contract with stealth startup Solaren Corp. of Southern California.
[Wall Street Journal Business – 04/13/2009]

TerraStar and SkyTerra to launch three of largest commercial satellites in history this summer to support sat-link phones that will not be much larger than traditional mobile phones.  Complete with 3G radios, they will offer integrated cell-phone/satellite-phone operation.
[fastcompany.com – 04/13/2009]

Vandals cut AT&T fiber, leaving thousands in Silicon Valley and throughout San Francisco Bay area without phone, internet, or wireless service for more than 12  hours, again raising question – how secure is U.S. communications network?
[cnet news – 04/13/2009]

Iranian Mullahs’ satellite program discussed in interview of Dr. Sepehr B. Ariannia of the Marze Por Gohar Iranian nationalist political party by Front Page Magazine.
[FrontPageMagazine.com – 04/13/2009]

Harris wins $150m contract to deliver satellite multiband radios to the U.S. Army.
[Satellite Today – 04/13/2009]

Galaxy Broadband Communications selects Encore’s BANDIT&trade line of industrially hardened routers for their satellite networks, systems, and solutions in Canada, to provide Galaxy customers end-to-end VPNs across both satellite and terrestrial networks.
[TMCnet – 04/13/2009]

NSR Report details current capacity issues facing Sub-Saharan Africa; while shortages have faced region in past two years, relocating capacity, and newly planned satellites threaten oversupply in the coming years.
[NSR report – Global Assessment of Satellite Demand – April 2009]

NSR Tele-Briefing April 29 to discuss recurring theme of the satellite industry’s relative strength during global economic downturn, offering its insights into the industry and whether the industry should be optimistic, and where a more realistic take may be warranted.
[NSR Tele-Briefing scheduled for 04/29/2009]

That’s right, MARS: the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, located on Wallops Island in Virginia. The Wallops Research Range is America’s oldest continuously-operating rocket launch range. It’s been around for more than 60 years and has supported more than 16,000 flight events.

On 5 May 2009, it’s leading the launch of a Minotaur 1 rocket carrying three payloads. The summary, via delmarvanow.com:

The spacecraft — consisting of an ATK Space Systems satellite bus and Tactical Satellite-3, which carries a trio of experiments — will be taken into space by an Orbital Sciences Corp. Minotaur I rocket.

The four-stage rocket includes two taken from retired Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles and two from Orbital’s Pegasus booster.

"Obviously, the project has much to do in these next few weeks leading up to lift off, but we now have a firm end date to get on orbit and begin the fun experiment phase," TacSat-3’s program manager Thomas Cooley said about problems encountered earlier in the project with some of the spacecraft’s components.

The main experiment aboard the satellite, ARTEMIS HSI, was developed by Raytheon Co. It is designed to quickly supply military commanders in the war theater with target detection and identification information, along with information about battlefield preparation and combat damage.

A second payload on TacSat-3 is the Office of Naval Research’s Satellite Communications Package, which will collect data from sea-based buoys and transmit it back to a ground station.

A third experiment, the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Avionics Experiment, is described in a prepared release from the Air Force as "plug-and-play avionics to advance the technology of rapid spacecraft integration and help enable the responsive space vision."

All three payloads have been tested at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico and final checks of the flight software have been completed in preparation for the May launch.

"Our program team never gave up, and establishment of the launch date serves as a testimony to their dedication, determination and duty to making TacSat-3’s mission a success,” Cooley said.

The spacecraft is now at MARS, where it will be joined with the launch vehicle.

Expect the launch to be webcast here.

In the Northeast U.S., there aren’t many places your mobile phone doesn’t get a signal. Sure, there are little pockets where you don’t, and in remote areas it can get a little tricky. In those instances, it sure would be nice to have a system available like Thuraya — a hybrid satellite/GSM network.

Most of the time, you’re using the GSM portion of your mobile. Out in the desert — lots of that type of terrain in the Middle East —  your mobile connects via a specialized geosynchronous satellite. Apparently, it works well enough so you don’t notice, but you probably get used to the inherent latency (your signal has a 45,000 mile round trip to complete, so at the speed of light figure at least a quarter-second of delay).

In the fully developed world, satellite phones have yet to be financially successful. Through bankruptcy, Iridium and Globalstar have been able to survive. Iridium was almost shut down completely were it not for the U.S. Department of Defense — they saw the value of a unique, diverse path for voice and narrow-band communications, so they kept it afloat.

Last week, TerreStar got some ink in USA Today:

The first handsets for TerreStar’s satellite would cost about $700, said TerreStar chief executive Jeff Epstein. At a cellphone trade show here last week, the company displayed a prototype built by small Finnish company, Elektrobit. The phone has a QWERTY keyboard and runs Windows Mobile software, making it similar to many BlackBerry-style, e-mail-oriented phones for corporate use, but a bit thicker. Unlike Iridium and Globalstar phones, there’s no protruding antenna.

"This way, you take your BlackBerry and you replace it with that device," Epstein said.

Both companies indicate that calling over a satellite will cost less than $1 per minute, the approximate price of Iridium calls. TerreStar also has a roaming agreement with AT&T Inc. for calls that don’t go through the satellite, and expects the combined satellite and ground system to be working before the end of this year.

However, neither TerreStar or SkyTerra will replicate Iridium’s worldwide coverage. The phones will work in North America only. Nor will they be getting away from a significant limitation of satellite phones: The handsets need to be in clear view of a satellite. In other words, the satellite service will work only outdoors, and a hill, tree or building obscuring the southern sky can be a problem, especially if you’re far north.

Given these limitations, and the steady expansion of ground-based networks, is there really a mass demand for satellite phones?

Satellite analyst and consultant Tim Farrar at TMF Associates is skeptical. He believes the number of people interested in satellite calling, even if just for emergencies, is small compared to the overall cellphone market.

"They need hundreds of thousands and more likely millions of users of these handsets to make it into the mainstream," he said. "You have to gain an awful lot of momentum before manufacturers will consider it worthwhile to build this into their handsets."

Farrar thinks marketing will be a challenge too. For mainstream adoption, sales representatives at cellphone stores would have to get customers to accept that the satellite connectivity would work only outdoors.

"Last time around, people tried out Iridium phones, and thought ‘What use is this to me if I have to go out and stand in the middle of a field to make a call?"’ he said.

Given these obstacles, Farrar believes the value of SkyTerra and TerreStar is in their spectrum holdings. The companies have permission from the Federal Communications Commission to use slices of the airwaves for both satellite and ground-based networks, as long as they have a satellite in orbit. The government hoped that such hybrid space-terrestrial licenses would encourage companies to provide emergency satellite coverage when cell towers are knocked out by disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

For now SkyTerra and TerreStar aren’t using their spectrum for ground-based communications. Eventually, the companies could try to put the airwaves to use with their own cell towers on the ground — or they could use that spectrum to entice a carrier like AT&T or Verizon Wireless. Those companies would normally have to pay billions for spectrum with nationwide coverage, but they might find that snapping up one of these satellite companies is a cheaper way to get that access, said Armand Musey, a satellite consultant.

Investors aren’t optimistic: Terrestar, which is listed on the Nasdaq, has a market capitalization of $72 million, which is paltry compared to the cost of its satellite system. SkyTerra is privately held.

"There certainly is not a market for having all of these companies — TerreStar, SkyTerra, Inmarsat, Iridium — all operating satellite-only," Musey said. "The market is just not that big."

The news from Elektrobit of Finland will be manufacturing the handset is about a year old, but this isn’t the first time satcom news gets recycled (case in point: Americom’s DigitalC in 1999 and again in 2000).

The TerreStar-1 satellite is scheduled to launch in June, 2009, via an Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Space Systems/Loral has been building it since 2005.

Let’s hope a smart business follows.

Four students in Spain sent a balloon and camera into the stratosphere and were simply overwhelmed with the results:

Completing their landmark experiment on February, the Meteotek team had to account for a wide variety of variables and rely on a lot of luck.

"The balloon we chose was inflated with helium to just over two metres and weighed just 1500 grams," said Gerard. "It was able to carry the sensor equipment and digital Nikon camera which weighed 1.5kg.

"However, when we launched at 9.10am on that morning the critical point for the experiment was to see if the balloon would make it past 10,000m, or 30,000ft, which is the altitude that commercial airliners fly at."

Due to the changing atmospheric pressures, the helium weather balloon carrying the meteorological equipment was expected to inflate to a maximum of nine and a half metres as it travelled upwards at 270 metres-per-minute.

"We took readings as the balloon rose and mapped its progress using Google Earth and the onboard radio receiver," said Gerard.

"At over 100,000ft the balloon lost its inflation and the equipment was returned to the earth.

"We travelled 10km to find the sensors and photographic card, which was still emitting its signal, even though it had been exposed to the most extreme conditions." 

Read about it here (in Catalan Spanish).No comprende? Their Flickr photos/videos speak for themselves.

I wouldn’t be surpised if their inspiration was the SABLE-3 project’s success in August, 2007.

And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?
It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth:
But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.

Interesting how a new partnership to grow plants on the Moon, announced last week, will focus on the mustard seed:

The prototype unveiled on Friday is a metal-reinforced glass dome that is some 9 centimetres in diameter and 30 centimetres high, enough space to grow roughly six plants.

But the enclosure will need to be modified to protect plants from the vagaries of space radiation and extremes in temperature on the lunar surface, which can range from a frigid -170 °C to just above 100 °C.

To avoid the cold of the lunar night, which lasts for 14 Earth days, the team decided to send up a fast-growing member of the mustard family. The mustard plant can grow from seed to flower over the course of a single lunar day, or two Earth weeks.

But a number of details still need to be worked out. It is not clear how the seeds themselves will be planted. Because ordinary soil is easily jostled, the team is considering using a stickier substrate, like seaweed-derived agar, to grow the plants.

Will the lunar mission be led by Col. Mustard, too? I don’t have a clue.

Way to get the business, Intelsat. Moving a spacecraft from the U.S. arc to the Indian Ocean Region:

Following an urgent call from the Pentagon’s Joint staff on February 6, Intelsat responded with a solution to reposition one of its domestic U.S. satellites, Galaxy 26, to a new orbital location in the Indian Ocean region. Intelsat began moving Galaxy 26 from its orbital slot at 93 W to its new position on February 20, once the existing commercial traffic assigned to the spacecraft had been shifted to another Intelsat satellite, Galaxy 25. Intelsat was able to begin drifting the Galaxy 26 satellite into its new orbital position only two weeks after the Department of Defense (DoD) request, a demonstration of how quickly the commercial industry can respond to solving critical warfighter requirements.

The contract, awarded through Artel Inc. as part of a DoD contract known as the DSTS-G (Defense Information Systems Network Satellite Transmission Services – Global), will fill a military bandwidth void supporting UAV surveillance operations. The repositioned Intelsat satellite will support launch and flight operations of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) deployed in the war zones, as well as other U.S. and NATO military operations in an area reaching from Germany to Southeast Asia.

"One of the key advantages of the Intelsat fleet is its scale and flexibility," said Kay Sears, President of Intelsat General. "This is the third time we have been able to reposition one of our satellites into a new orbital location to support critical operations on the ground in these two vital regions. Moving this satellite to the Indian Ocean region will prevent the disruption of a range of important military activities in that area."

The contract calls for up to 432 MHz of bandwidth using 12 Ku-band transponders operating on the Galaxy 26 satellite, which had most recently been serving North America. The satellite, using wide-beam capability, can support up to 40 UAV sorties simultaneously.

"This move is of particular importance, since we did not want any service interruptions to the DoD missions and there was no other capacity available to fulfill these requirements without this bold move by Intelsat," said Abbas Yazdani, President and CEO of ARTEL.

The demands for bandwidth created by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan previously prompted Intelsat to twice move satellites in support of Intelsat General’s military customers.

This week’s satcom news, courtesy of Bill McDonald:

Globecomm Systems Inc wins multiple contracts from various Government agencies worth about $3.3m. [Satnews – 03/20/2009]

Thaicom subsidiary IPStar Co. receives licenses to bring satellite broadband services to Japan. [Satellite Today – 03/20/2009]

Stratos signs agreement to distribute ViaSat ruggedized BGAN terminals. [Satellite Today – 03/20/2009]

GeoEye starts delivering high-resolution color satellite imagery from its newest satellite to Google. [Satellite Today – 03/20/2009]

Spectacular submarine volcanic eruption in the Tonga Islands of the South Pacific captured by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Aqua satellite March 18. [Satnews – 03/19/2009]

Satellite broadband market in Europe revived by falling price of terminals and emergence of Ka-band satellites. [Satellite Today – 03/19/2009]

EchoStar Europe targets European cable market with new range of advanced set-top boxes. [Satellite Today – 03/19/2009]

NASCAR driver Robby Gordon is sponsored by SPOT LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globalstar Inc. [msnbc – 03/19/2009]

SkyTerra Communication’s push-to-talk satellite phones purchased by Kentucky Department for Public Health under grant from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; some to be used by emergency management agencies to keep in touch during disasters. [SatNews – 03/19/2009]

TerrSAR-X geolocation accuracy and performance exceed the product’s own standards according to report from Civil and Commercial Applications Project group within U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. [Satellite Today – 03/19/2009]

Newtec’s Horizon HZ420 equipment selected by Movision, part of Iraqi television network Alsumaria TV, for use in the Middle East’s first ever paid-for mobile television service for mobile phones and devices. [Satnews – 03/19/2009]

Air Force’s GPS IIR-20 satellite scheduled for launch on Delta II rocket March 24 from Cape Canaveral. [Satnews – 03/18/2009]

Launch preparations underway for TerreStar-1 on another Ariane 5 while the launch of Hershel and Planck is on hold. [Satnews – 03/18/2009]

India’s future in the satellite sector holds promise of continued extraordinary progress, as highlighted at the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia industry conference. [Satnews – 03/18/2009]

Harris selected to provide additional Rugged Deployable Satellite Communications Terminals to U.S. Navy in a $30m follow-on order. [AP – 03/18/2009]

Launch scrubbed for Atlas V rocket carrying second Wideband Global Satellite Communications satellite. [msnbc – 03/18/2009]

WGS satellite was planned to give major communications boost to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. [Spaceflight Now – 03/16/2009]

Arrowhead wins multimillion dollar contracts to provide commercial X-band satellite services to two U.S. government agencies. [Satellite Today – 03/18/2009]

International Launch Services and SES announce three new launch assignments under the Multi Launch Agreement that was signed in June, 2007, including NSS-14 for SES NEW SKIES and Sirius 5 for SES SIRIUS.
[Satnews – 03/18/2009]

GlobeCast launches second MCPC platform on AsiaSat 3S satellite, with European broadcaster Deutsche Welle as the first client on the new transponder. [Satnews – 03/18/2009]

GeoEye signs several agreements with international resellers to provide high-resolution satellite imagery and value-added products from GeoEye-1 Earth-imaging satellite. [Satnews – 03/18/2009]

Globecomm Systems introduces Ka-band version of its 1.2m Auto-Explorer satellite terminal designed to comply with MIL-STD-1888-164A and targeted at US Department of Defense Wideband Global SATCOM system. [BusinessWire – 03/18/2009]

Riverbed to exhibit technology at Satellite 2009 which addresses all three factors affecting satellite-based WANs – limited bandwidth, TCP behavior, and application-protocol inefficiencies.[tmcnet – 03/18/2009]

Harmonic launches universal broadcast encoder which it says is world’s first encoding and transcoding platform to support MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 in both HD and Standard Definition. Cable operators can deliver up to four HD MPEG-2 services in one QAM, and satellite operators can increase channel count per transponder. [CED Magazine – 03/18/2009]

SES ASTRA selected by European Commission to provide services to the European navigation service with tailor-made payload on Sirius 5, to be launched in second half of 2011, and related ground infrastructure. [Satnews – 03/17/2009]

Faria WatchDog Inc announces that its WatchDog 750 long-range identification and tracking ship terminal has successfully completed compliance and test requirements for operating on the Iridium satellite system. [PR Newswire – 03/17/2009]

Hughes is selected for providing broadband satellite services in Latin America by U.S. subsidiary of Ecuadorian satellite communications provider Telecomunicaciones Bantel C.A. [Trading Markets – 03/17/2009]

NDS wins IPTV contract from Russian company Comstar-United TeleSystems. [Satellite Today – 03/17/2009]

Router headed for orbit – U.S. military envisions router carrying satellite "IRIS" to launch late this summer could boost bandwidth available to military users worldwide. [DefenseNews – 03/16/2009]

United Launch Alliance wins launch contract worth about $600m to launch 4 NASA science and satellite communications missions starting in 2011. [Denver Business Journal – 03/16/2009]

Satellite 2009 conference and exhibition show projects increased attendance this year, and has added 50 new exhibiting companies showcasing newest technology for satellite-enable communications. [PR Newswire – 03/16/2009]

Governments in Eastern Europe are realizing importance of adopting satellite carriage to establish a homogeneous communications solution to advance their economic and political agendas – are spearheading revitalization of VSAT markets there. [BusinessWire – 03/16/2009]

Obama’s National Broadband Initiative – what’s in it for satellite? Fox Business News March 10 interview features Mark Dankberg, ViaSat CEO, commenting. [ViaSat News Archives – Fox Business News – 03/10/2008]