Really Rocket Science

The Army’s planned satellite frequency changeover from Ku- to Ka-band may seem insignificant; however, this small change represents a multibillion dollar transition.
[Satellite PR News – 02/05/2010]

Astrium has been awarded a follow-on contract for the delivery of a second set of subsystems to the Turkish Navy’s Milgem satellite communications program…
[Satellite Today – 02/05/2010]

Solaris Mobile signed a corporate partnership with European car rental company Europcar
[Satellite Today – 02/05/2010]

EADS North America has received a five-year contract to provide commercial radar satellite data to the U.S. government’s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) for use in intelligence, military and homeland security applications.
[SatNews – 02/04/2010]

International Launch Services gets ready to launch the Intelsat-16 satellite aboard a Proton M/Breeze M rocket on February 11th at 7:30 p.m., EST.
[SatNewa – 02/04/2010]

Harris, prime contractor and systems integrator for the 10 year $736M Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite – Series R Ground Segment, expands its Washington DC presence with new 24,000 sqaure foot facility for the contract.
[SatNews – 02/04/2010]

White House plans to dismantle the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) program and split it between separate projects.
[Satellite Today – 02/04/2010]

Space X’s Dragon Program completes testing, demonstration.
[Satellite Today – 02/04/2010]

Eutelsat firmly denies Georgian Public Broadcaster’s claims that its offer of W2A capacity instead of W7 capacity will inconvenience GPB’s Russian customers, since Russian customers would have to purchase linear antennas for either spacecraft.
[PR Newswire – 02/04/2010]

ViaSat receives additional orders for its LinkWayS2 satellite modem systems to support U.S. government networks.
[SatNews – 02/04/2010]

Northrop Grumman Corporation selected by ITT Corporation to provide flight cryocoolers for the sensor payloads for two international weather satellites to reduce thermal noise in the space-based sensors.
[SatNews – 02/04/2010]

Technical problems on the W2A satellite have been a major setback for Solaris Mobile.
[Satellite Today – 02/04/2010]

SIRIUS XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) has announced the availability of a free application for BlackBerry(R) smartphones,
[SatNews – 02/04/2010]

Orbital Sciences Corporation announces strong support for the Obama Administration’s new direction for the country’s civil space programs.
SatNews – 02/03/2010]

TechniSat, known in Germany for digital receivers and a provider of IDTVs, is expanding into the French market and has set up TechniSat Digital France E.U.R.L. in the French capital, Paris.
[SatNews – 02/03/2010]

Stratos Global Corporation is supplying Inmarsat BGAN mobile satellite communications service to University of California San Diego (UCSD) researchers to support their ambitious archaeological survey in remote Mongolia.
[SatNews  – 02/03/2010]

Orbital Sciences Corporation announces strong support for the Obama Administration’s new direction for the country’s civil space programs.
[SatNews – 02/03/2010]

Reportlinker.com has a new market research report available in its catalogue — Satellite Transponders – International Technology & Market Trends.
[SatNews – 02/03/2010]

Iran successfully launches a home-produced satellite on the Kavoshgar 3 (Explorer) satellite launcher.
[SatNews – 02/03/2010]

TechniSat, known in Germany for digital receivers and a provider of IDTVs, is expanding into the French market and has set up TechniSat Digital France E.U.R.L. in the French capital, Paris.
[SatNews – 02/03/2010]

Stratos Global Corporation is supplying Inmarsat BGAN mobile satellite communications service to University of California San Diego (UCSD) researchers to support their ambitious archaeological survey in remote Mongolia.
[SatNews – 02/03/2010]

ViaSat on new trajectory following deal to create satellite-based high speed internet.
[Xconomy – San Diego – 02/03/2010]

Iran unveils three new satellites and satellite carrier.
[Al Bawaba – 02/03/2010]

It’s not going to be business as usual — that is perhaps the only definitive thing the Space Foundation can say about President Obama’s FY 2011 NASA proposal, released on February 1st.
[SatNews – 02/02/2010]

Dan Losada, Senior Director of the Defense & Intelligence Systems Division at Hughes, will discuss ]ow shipboard satellite communications are critical to maintaining net-centric operations during missions at the SIA SATCOM User’s Workshop.
[SatNews – 02/02/2010]

NASA streams video from International Space Station.
[Information Week – 02/02/2010]

KVH opens Singapore office to support growing Asia region and commercial sales.
[PR Newswire – 02/03/2010]

In an effort to recover and reinvest in our nation’s businesses, NASA has awarded $50 million through funded agreements to further the commercial sector’s capability to support transport of crew to and from low Earth orbit.
[SatNews – 02/02/2010]

Mega Hertz, Inc. joins the ViP-TV™ Reseller Program of EchoStar Satellite Services L.L.C.
[SatNews – 02/02/2010]

International Datacasting Corporation receives a $2.8 million CDN contract from the Canadian Department of National Defence, (DND) for the continued operation of Canadian Forces Radio and Television, (CFRT).
[SatNews – 02/02/2010]

EchoStar Satellite Services L.L.C.to deliver its ViP-TV(TM) video transport service to BTC Broadband, a provider of whole home telecommunications services in Oklahoma.
[SatNews – 02/02/2010]

atrexx offers to restore the services of Intelsat-4 customers after the satellite experienced an anomaly resulting in the switching off of the communication payload to conserve battery power.
[SatNews – 02/02/2010]

Russia is preparing to launch a Progress cargo spaceship on a resupply mission to the International Space Station.
[Space Travel – 02/02/2010]

Intense public debate on how rapidly Himalayan glaciers are shrinking highlights importance of satellites in monitoring glaciers worldwide.
[Space Mart – 02/02/2010]

India is building a spacecraft for mobile applications that will enable satellite phone use without depending on foreign companies.
[Space Mart – 02/02/2010]N

Gilat Satellite Networks, Ltd.’s Bandwidth Optimizer (BWO) solution has been successfully deployed at hub sites in Asia.
[Satnews – 02/01/2010]

White House proposed budget cuts NPOESS program in half; directs NOAA and Air Force to continue developing their own weather observatories.
[Spaceflight Now – 02/01/2010]

Rascomstar-Qaf will launch a new satellite in May, two years after launching their Rascomstar-QAF1 that is expected to cease functioning by the close of 2010.
[SatNews – 02/01/2010]

Intelsat 4 experiences anomaly; Intelsat and Boeing work together to identify cause; Intelsat works with customers to identify restoration capacity.
[Business Wire – 02/01/2010]

Obama budget extends U.S. involvement in the International Space Station to 2020 or beyond.
[Space Travel – 02/01/2010]

Shuttle Endeavour to deliver a new technological module, Tranquility, to the International Space Station for its U.S. segment.
[Space Travel – 02/01/2010]

Next generation weather environmental satellite marks significant milestone with delivery and beginning of integration for a key science instrument.
[Space Mart – 02/01/2010]

Strong bipartisan congressional rebuke against Obama plan to kill NASA’s moon-bound Constellation program.
[Space.com – 02/01/2010]

Obama kills moon program; endorses NASA support for the commercial space program.
[NASA – 01/31/2010]

ORBCOMM AIS data used to help rescue two yachters in distress, and in detecting low power search and rescue transponders from space.
[TMCnet – 02/01/2010]

Thuraya helps rural communities to improve communications, often facilitating access to satellite services in areas usually not penetrated by traditional terrestrial networks.
[AME Info – 01/31/2010]

Pentagon’s recent announcement that it will buy 50 more extended range UAVs sends signal that more Communications-on-the-Move (COTM) for UAVs will be needed in the coming years.
[NSR Report – February 2010]

U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) awards two of three contracts for radar data to foreign companies; data for all three awards came from foreign satellites.
[NSR Report – February, 2010]

Supporting the Warfighter: Adapting to the Changing Paradigm of the Defense Market This article discusses how businesses will need to change the way they do business with the military under the mounting budget pressures on the military.
[Microwave Journal – January 2010]

WBMSAT PS – Satellite Communications Consulting Services

TUAW’s Steven Sande picked up on the "Newspad," envisioned by Sir Arthur Clarke in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 When he tired of official reports and memoranda and minutes, he would plug his foolscap-sized Newspad into the ship’s information circuit and scan the latest reports from Earth. One by one he would conjure up the world’s major electronic papers; he knew the codes of the more important ones by heart, and had no need to consult the list on the back of his pad. Switching to the display unit’s short-term memory, he would hold the front page while he quickly searched the headlines and noted the items that interested him.

Each had its own two-digit reference; when he punched that, the postage-stamp-sized rectangle would expand until it neatly filled the screen and he could read it with comfort. When he had finished, he would flash back to the complete page and select a new subject for detailed examination.

Floyd sometimes wondered if the Newspad, and the fantastic technology behind it, was the last word in man’s quest for perfect communications. Here he was, far out in space, speeding away from Earth at thousands of miles an hour, yet in a few milliseconds he could see the headlines of any newspaper he pleased. (That very word "newspaper," of course, was an anachronistic hangover into the age of electronics.) The text was updated automatically on every hour; even if one read only the English versions, one could spend an entire lifetime doing nothing but absorbing the ever-changing flow of information from the news satellites.

It was hard to imagine how the system could be improved or made more convenient. But sooner or later, Floyd guessed, it would pass away, to be replaced by something as unimaginable as the Newspad itself would have been to Caxton or Gutenberg.

From 2001: A Space Odyssey , by Arthur C. Clarke.
Published by Del Rey in 1968

 

This video clip show the iPad-like device in action…