Really Rocket Science

German and American astronauts aboard the International Space Station stopped working to watch the U.S.A./Germany FIFA World Cup match today. Their Internet connection was probably uninterrupted, unlike for most people watching while at work.

WatchESPN (app and site) counted 1.4 million concurrent live viewers today and many more were probably denied viewing access due to congestion (or somebody in IT security woke up and shut that bandwidth mother down). After Germany scored the only goal, viewership rose to 1.7 million. Univision’s stream had no trouble (non-Spanish-speakers don’t know it exists; others know satellite is better).

Interestingly, Univision’s feed via DirecTV was more than 2 seconds ahead of ESPN’s — probably to allow for multiple satellite paths and processing in Bristol.

What a gorgeous place to visit: the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. It’s not cheap to fly there and it’ll take more than a day from the Eastern U.S.

How’s the Internet connection out there? It’s getting better, thanks to Telecom Cook Islands and O3b Networks. They began installing and testing back in December and they should be up and running with more by now.

What do their customers think? They’re happy…

O3b Networks is well-funded, yet it may soon face competition from one of its backers, namely Google.

Twenty years ago, the first direct-broadcast satellite system was sold in Jackson, Mississippi, at Cowboy Malone’s Electric City. They probably sell quite a few today, too.

The business has transformed itself into a competitive alternative to cable and currently counts more than 34 million subscribers (DirecTV & Dish combined). You could, however, argue there was a TVRO service for years, and PrimeStar goes back to 1991.

Comments to FCC rule changes can be dry and lawyerish. Not this one…

Dear FCC;

Regarding recent proposed rules that implicitly endorse “internet fast lanes”,
allowing Internet providers to offer an option for web companies to pay to connect
to users at faster speeds, I would like to make the following comments:

You swines. You vulgar little maggots. You worthless bags of filth. As we say in
Texas, you couldn’t pour water out of a boot with instructions printed on the heel.
You are a canker, an open wound. I would rather kiss a lawyer than be seen with you.
You took your last vacation in the Islets of Langerhans.

You’re a putrescent mass, a walking vomit. You are spineless little worms deserving
nothing but the profoundest contempt. You are jerks, cads, and weasels. I take that
back; you are a festering pustule on a weasel’s rump. Your life is a monument to
stupidity. You are a stench, a revulsion, a big suck on a sour lemon.

I will never get over the embarrassment of belonging to the same species as you. You
are monsters, ogres, a malformity. I barf at the very thought of you. You have all
the appeal of a paper cut. Lepers avoid you. You are vile, worthless, less than
nothing. You are a weed, a fungus, the dregs of this earth. You are a technicolor
yawn. And did I mention that you smell?

You are squeaking rats, a mistake of nature and heavy-metal bagpipe players. You
were not born. You were hatched into an unwilling world that rejects the likes of
you. You didn’t crawl out of a normal egg, either, but rather a mutant maggot egg
rejected by an evil scientist as being below his low standards. Your alleged parents
abandoned you at birth and then died of shame in recognition of what they had done
to an unsuspecting world. They were a bit late. If cluelessness were crude oil, your
scalp would be crawling with caribou.

You are thick-headed trogs. I have seen skeet with more sense than you have. You are
a few bricks short of a full load, a few cards short of a full deck, a few bytes
short of a full core dump, and a few chromosomes short of a full human. Worse than
that, you top-post. God created houseflies, cockroaches, maggots, mosquitos, fleas,
ticks, slugs, leeches, and intestinal parasites, then he lowered his standards and
made you. I take it back; God didn’t make you. You are Satan’s spawn. You are Evil
beyond comprehension, half-living in the slough of despair. You are the entropy
which will claim us all. You are a green-nostriled, crossed eyed, hairy-livered,
goisher kopf, inbred trout-defiler. You make Ebola look good.

You are weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. You are grimy, squalid, nasty and
profane. You are foul and disgusting. You’re fools, ignoramuses. Monkeys look down
on you. Even sheep won’t have sex with you. You are unreservedly pathetic, starved
for attention, and lost in a land that reality forgot. You are not ANSI compliant
and your markup doesn’t validate. You have a couple of address lines shorted
together. You should be promoted to Engineering Manager.

Your life is one big W.O.M.B.A.T., and your future doesn’t look promising either. We
need to trace your bloodline and terminate all siblings and cousins in order to
cleanse humanity of your polluted genes. The good news is that no normal human would
ever mate with you, so we won’t have to go into the sewers in search of your git.
You are a waste of flesh. You have no rhythm. You are ridiculous and obnoxious. You
are the moral equivalent of a leech. You are a living emptiness, a meaningless void.

You are sour and senile. You are a loathsome disease, a drooling inbred cross-eyed
toesucker. You make Quakers shout and strike Pentecostals silent. You have a version
1.0 mind in a version 6.13 world. Your mother had to tie a pork chop around your
neck just to get your dog to play with you. You think that

http://www.GuyMacon.com/flame.html is the name of a rock band. You believe that
P.D.Q. Bach is the greatest composer who ever lived. You prefer L. Ron Hubbard to
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Hee-Haw is too deep for you. You would watch test
patterns all day if the other inmates would let you.

On a good day you’re half-wits. You remind me of drool. You are deficient in all
that lends character. You have the personality of wallpaper. You are dank and
filthy. You are asinine and benighted. Spammers look down on you. Phone sex
operators hang up on you. Telemarketers refuse to be seen in public with you. You
are the source of all unpleasantness. You spread misery and sorrow wherever you go.
May you choke on your own foolish opinions. You are a Pusillanimous galactophage and
you wear your sister’s training bra. Don’t bother opening the door when you leave –
you should be able to slime your way out underneath. I hope that when you get home
your mother runs out from under the porch and bites you.

You smarmy lagerlout gits. You bloody woofter sods. Bugger off, pillocks. You grotty
wanking oik artless base-court apple-johns. You clouted boggish foot-licking
half-twits. You dankish clack-dish plonkers. You gormless crook-pated tossers. You
bloody churlish boil-brained clotpole ponces. You craven dewberry pisshead cockup
pratting naffs. You cockered bum-bailey poofters. You gob-kissing gleeking
flap-mouthed coxcombs. You dread-bolted fobbing beef-witted clapper-clawed
flirt-gills. You jetere steatopygous pilgarlick hircine whigmaleerious rhadamanthine
lintlickers. I refer you to the reply given in the case of Arkell v. Pressdram.

You are so clueless that if you dressed in a clue skin, doused yourself in clue
musk, and did the clue dance in the middle of a field of horny clues at the height
of clue mating season, you still would not have a clue. If you were a movie you
would be a double feature; _Battlefield_Earth_ and _Moron_Movies_II_. You would be
out of focus.

You are fiends and sniveling cowards, and you have bad breath. You are the unholy
spawn of a bandy-legged hobo and a syphilitic camel. You wear strangely mismatched
clothing with oddly placed stains. You are degenerate, noxious and depraved. I feel
debased just knowing that you exist. I despise everything about you, and I wish you
would go away. You are jetsam who dreams of becoming flotsam. You won’t make it. I
beg for sweet death to come and remove me from a world which became unbearable when
the bioterrorists designed you.

It is hard to believe how incredibly stupid you are. Stupid as a stone that the
other stones make fun of. So stupid that you have traveled far beyond stupid as we
know it and into a new dimension of stupid. Meta-stupid. Stupid cubed. Trans-stupid
stupid. Stupid collapsed to a singularity where even the stupons have collapsed into
stuponium. Stupid so dense that no intelligence can escape. Singularity stupid.

Blazing hot summer day on Mercury stupid. You emit more stupid in one minute than
our entire galaxy emits in a year. Quasar stupid. It cannot be possible that
anything in our universe can really be this stupid. This is a primordial fragment
from the original big stupid bang. A pure extract of stupid with absolute stupid
purity. Stupid beyond the laws of nature. I must apologize. I can’t go on. This is
my epiphany of stupid. After this experience, you may not hear from me for a while.
I don’t think that I can summon the strength left to mock your moronic opinions and
malformed comments about boring trivia or your other drivel. Duh.

The only thing worse than your logic is your manners. Your attempt at regulating the Internet was pitiful. I mean, really, stringing together a bunch of plattitudes
among a load of babbling was hardly effective… Maybe later in life, after you have
learned to read, write, spell, and count, you will have more success. True, these
are rudimentary skills that many of us “normal” people take for granted that
everyone has an easy time of mastering. But we sometimes forget that there are
“challenged” persons in this world who find these things to be difficult. If I had
known that this was true in your case then I would have never have exposed myself to
your prposed regulations. It just wouldn’t have been “right.” Sort of like parking
in a handicap space. I wish you the best of luck in the emotional, and social
struggles that seem to be placing such a demand on you.

P.S.: You are hypocritical, greedy, violent, malevolent, vengeful, cowardly, deadly,
mendacious, meretricious, loathsome, despicable, belligerent, opportunistic,
barratrous, contemptible, criminal, fascistic, bigoted, racist, sexist, avaricious,
tasteless, idiotic, brain-damaged, imbecilic, insane, arrogant, deceitful, demented,
lame, self-righteous, byzantine, conspiratorial, satanic, fraudulent, libelous,
bilious, splenetic, spastic, ignorant, clueless, EDLINoid, illegitimate, harmful,
destructive, dumb, evasive, double-talking, devious, revisionist, narrow,
manipulative, paternalistic, fundamentalist, dogmatic, idolatrous, unethical,
cultic, diseased, suppressive, controlling, restrictive, malignant, deceptive, dim,
crazy, weird, dyspeptic, stifling, uncaring, plantigrade, grim, unsympathetic,
jargon-spouting, censorious, secretive, aggressive, mind-numbing, arassive,
poisonous, flagrant, self-destructive, abusive, socially-retarded, puerile, pinguid,
and Generally Not Good.

Please read [ https://www.eff.org/issues/net-neutrality ].

Photographer Vincent Brady made a contraption with four cameras, each fitted with fish-eye lenses, which he set up to do 360-degree panoramas. He calls them “Planetary Panoramas” and the results are amazing!

While experimenting with different photography tricks and techniques back in 2012, I was shooting 360 degree panoramas in the daytime and long exposures of the stars streaking in the sky at night. It suddenly became clear that the potential to combine the two techniques could be a trip! Since the Earth is rotating at a steady 1,040 mph I created a custom rig of 4 cameras with fisheye lenses to capture the entire night-sky in motion. Thus the images show the stars rotating around the north star as well as the effect of the southern pole as well and a 360 degree panorama of the scene on Earth. Each camera is doing nonstop long exposures, typically about 1 minute consecutively for the life of the camera battery. Usually about 3 hours. I then made a script to stitch all the thousands of these panoramas into this time-lapse. I created my rig in January of 2013 while in my final semester at Lansing Community College before receiving an associates degree in photography. Given it was winter in Michigan, I didn’t get to chase the notorious clear moonless night sky as much as I had hoped as the region has lots of cloud cover that time of year. Though I was ready on the rare night to go experiment. After graduating in May I had built up quite the urge to hit the road. My rig has taken me to firefly parties in Missouri, dark eerie nights at Devils Tower, through Logan Pass at Glacier National Park, up the mountains of British Columbia, and around the amazing arches and sandstone monuments in the Great American Southwest.

These are the images I created on the cold, dark, sleepless nights under awe-spiring skies.

The music is composed and recorded by my very good friend, the acoustic fingerpicking guitar prodigy Brandon McCoy! Brandon who is also from the greater Lansing area in Mid-Michigan is quite the acoustic instrumentalist. The song chosen for this time-lapse is called ‘One Letter From Lady.’ I moved to Michigan when I was 15 and Brandon was the first friend I made. He was the cool kid playing Pink Floyd licks on a $2 guitar at the time. Soon, after he had spent his cold, dark, sleepless nights perfecting his craft, he started coming up with his very own instrumentals. Some of which are upbeat by mixing picking, slapping, and drumming on the guitar while other compositions of his are calm and soothing and can put you in a meditative trance if you just close your eyes. It has been a great experience watching each other grow as artist for over the past 10 years, and you better believe we will be collaborating on projects like this in the very near future.

Phil Plait does an extraordinary job of explaining what’s going on here…

First are the weird star trails you see in many of the scenes. I’ve explained this before, but briefly: When you face north, east is to your right and west to your left, so the stars rise and set in a counterclockwise manner. If you face south, the reverse is true (west on your right, east on your left, and the stars move clockwise). If you look due east, the stars rise straight up, going over you head. Face west, and they move straight down to the horizon.

Normally, since you can only look in one direction at a time, you don’t have to deal with all these different movements all at once. But in the video we’re seeing the whole sky at the same time, with all those weird motions combined. So near the sky’s north pole the stars make little circles one way, and near the south pole (which is below the horizon in Michigan, where these shots were taken) they move the opposite way.

But there’s more! Once the images are stitched together, they can be mapped into different shapes. Just like you can take a map of the Earth and turn that into a spherical globe, a flattened Mercator projection, or any number of other types of shapes, you can do that with the sky as well. Brady reshaped the pictures several ways in the video, including using a (more or less) flat horizon facing east (at the 0:15 mark), which makes the stars rise out of the middle of the frame, and the same thing but facing south (at the 1:55 mark) and west (at the 2:19 mark) — all of which make the sky look very odd indeed.

But he also used something called the “Little Planet” effect, which is really weird. This takes the flat horizon and wraps it around into a circle, making the left side of the image touch the right, like rolling a rectangle up into a cylinder (or, more accurately a cone). The technique is pretty simple, and the end result is that it’s like you’re looking down on a tiny little planet or asteroid with the sky wrapped around it. This also tends to distort taller objects, lengthening them, so the arches (at the 0:30 mark) and hoodoos (at the 1:27 mark) look like they’re reaching toward you.

I’ll note that this is the opposite of the “all-sky” effect (at the 1:14 mark) where it looks like you’re looking up into the entire sky.

What fun! And all of this just from looking in all directions at once, and applying a little math to the result. I have to admit, I found it very disorienting (in a fun way) trying to pick out constellations and familiar landmarks in the sky during the video.

This is really cool and I hope he registers a patent!

Falcon 9 after successful test firing – Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com – Universe Today

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rolled out to Cape Canaveral launch pad in preparation for 6:08 P.M. EDT scheduled launch of six advanced OG2 satellites for ORBCOMM.
[Universe Today – 06/20/20014]

A Russian-Ukrainian Dnepr silo-launched rocket on June 19 successfully deployed 33 satellites ranging in size from several hundred kilograms to less than 5 kilograms each into low Earth orbit.
[Space News – 06/20/2014]

Airbus and Safran propose new Ariane 6 design and reorganization of Europe’s rocket industry.
[Space News – 06/20/2014]

Viasat asks court to halt SSL work on at least one satellite.
[Space News – 06/20/2014]

British satellite communications firm Inmarsat eyes disaster-response as a new market as it launches three satellites in the next nine months.
[Business Mirror – 06/20/2014]

Gerald Herbert/AP File Photo – Nextgov

FCC slams Chinese GPS jammer vendor with $34.9 million fine.
[Nextgov – 06/19/2014]

One of the ships searching for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Photograph: David Le-May/BBC/David Le-May – The Guardian

New revised search zone for Flight 370, based on an intensive study of satellite communications from the jet and other data, expected to be hundreds of miles south of the previous search zone.
[The Guardian – 06/19/2014]

Eutelsat plans a new triple-payload satellite designated Eutelsat 172B, to launch in 2017 at 172 degrees east to boost capacity and expand coverage across the Asia-Pacific.
[Via Satellite – 06/19/2014]

Belarusian satellite to be managed through Azerbaijan’s ground control center.
[TMCnet – 06/19/2014]

The Russian military will test its new mobile satellite communications system during the Vostok-2014 strategic exercise in Russia’s Eastern Military District.
[SatNews – 06/19/2014]

Dream Chaser – Credit: Sierra Nevada Corp. – Space News

Sierra Nevada Corp. to acquire ORBITEC.
[Space News – 06/19/2014]

Newtec M6100 modulators installed on Thaicom 6 platform, enabling TV Broadcasting services in both C-band and Ku-band in Thailand.
[realwire – 06/19/2014]

Harris publishes a patent application online titled “Portable Satellite Communication System.”
[4-traders – 06/19/2014]

Panasonic to bring satellite connectivity to Pacific aircraft routes in partnership with Eutelsat.
[Aviation Today – 06/19/2014]

Emerging Markets Communications adds 13 new field support centers in strategic remote areas worldwide in 2014.
[Satellite Spotlight – 06/19/2014]

Addvalue Innovation to preview Wideye iSavi for Smart Device Satellite Connectivity at this year’s CommunicAsia trade show in Singapore.
[CBS8.com – 06/19/2014]

Avanti launches “Avanti Mobile Assist” app for Android phones to assist satellite installation engineers with Ka-band satellite field installations.
[Satellite Spotlight – 06/19/2014]

IPSTAR Japan, a Thaicom subsidiary, reports that Tokyo-based shipping company Ocean Trans Co. has selected its end-to-end broadband service to provide its crew with Internet access.
[Digital Ship – 06/19/2014]

Obama administration opposes appropriations bill provision: $220 million to start development of a large rocket engine to replace the Russian-built RD-180.
[Space News – 06/18/2014]

Proton Rocket Launch – PHSY-ORG

A Russian startup says it will launch several satellites in the coming weeks, the country’s first private satellite constellation, to offer maritime monitoring services.
[PHYS-ORG – 06/18/2014]

Kymeta, commercializing innovative metamaterials-based flat-panel antennas for satellite communications, named by CNBC among world’s top 50 disruptors second year in a row.
[PCB007 – 06/18/2014]

SpeedCast of Australia acquires Oceanic Broadband, a leading integrator and solutions provider in the Oceania region.
[Bloomberg Businessweek – 06/18/2014]

ATCi tailors its Simulsat RF transport solution, a complete integrated RF ingest and distribution system, for the Asian market.
[Digital Journal – 06/18/2014]

SES CEO emphasizes the satellite industry’s “right to play” in the overall communications industry during address at CASBAA Satellite Industry Forum 2014.
[Via Satellite – 06/17/2014]

Global uptake of ultra HD via DTH to reach nearly 300 channels by 2023.
[NSR Press Release – 06/17/2014]

C-band spectrum essential to Asia Pacific Region according to new study released at CASBAA Satellite Industry Forum.
[Satellite Markets & Research – 06/17/2014]

Artist’s concept of GPS III satellite – Lockheed Martin/AP File Photo – Nextgov

Delays in delivery of GPS III satellites by Lockheed Martin prompt U.S. Air Force to ask other vendors for proposals to develop and build up to 22 satellites.
[Nexgov – 06/17/2014]

Laser Light Communications (LLC) enters into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) relating to LLC’s Global Hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial All Optical Network technology.
[4-traders – 06/17/2014]

India’s Telecom Commission has given the approval for introducing satellite-based mobile services in the country.
[The Hindu Business Line – 06/17/2014]

Indian Telecom panel gives nod to reduced licence fee for VSAT operators in the country.
[Business Standard – 06/17/2014]

C-COM Satellite Systems is listed amongst Canada’s fastest growing companies.
[Market Watch – 06/17/2014]

Gilat Satcom launches satellite phone service to provide connectivity in African underground mines.
[Mining.com – 06/17/2014]

Vislink and ND SatCom have announced a cooperation agreement to offer a wider product range to their broadcast and surveillance customers.
[RAPIDTV News – 09/17/2014]

Gilat announces a breakthrough in LTE backhauling using its Capricorn TDMA VSAT, following completion of tests of its 200Mbps terminal on Thaicom’s IPSTAR satellite.
[Market Watch – 06/17/2014]

Global mobile satellite communications company Inmarsat will launch its personal connectivity device IsatHub globally in August 2014..
[Satellite Evolution Group – 06/17/2014]

Parade marking 100th anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s birthday Pyongyang, North Korea. // DigitalGlobe/AP File Photo – Nextgov

Independent nonproliferation experts can now get images offering much greater detail about Iran’s and North Korea’s above-ground nuclear facilities.
[Nextgov – 06/16/2014]

Connecting to the internet via satellite. Flickr/Michael Josh Villanueva, CC BY-NC – The Conversation

News that Google representatives are in talks with Virgin Galactic seen as further evidence it is looking to set up a series of low-orbit satellites to help connect more people to the internet.
[The Conversation – 06/16/2014]

Crystal Solutions launches its Carrier ID Detection System, which allows users to quickly distinguish a satellite carrier.
[Via Satellite – 06/16/2014]

Nine Network Australia deploys several of Newtec’s solutions in order to boost efficiency in its satellite network, allowing 64% more data rate throughput.
[Newtec Press Release – 06/16/2014]

Eutelsat Communications, in partnership with ST Teleport, is set to introduce its 4K Ultra HD channel on the Eutelsat 70B satellite reaching Southeast Asia and Australia.
[Via Satellite – 06/16/2014]

INTEGRASYS has released their Satmotion Pocket Remote Commissioning Solution for Google Glass, at CommunicAsia2014 tradeshow.
[SatNews – 06/16/2014]

Gilat announces that Wireless Nation, a leading New Zealand ISP, will be deploying Gilat’s SkyEdge II VSATs powered by Optus’s wholesale satellite services.
[Globe Newswire – 06/16/2014]

ST Teleport and Eutelsat seal partnership to offer enhances connectivity solutions in Asia.
[Satellite Spotlight – 06/16/2014]

Hughes broadband satellite technology selected by Thaicom for in-flight connectivity services.
[Yahoo Finance – 06/16/2014]

TelOne of Zimbabwe says it expects its fledgling satellite broadband service, delivered in partnership with Avanti, to be contributing at least USD5 million to revenue annually within a year.
[4-traders – 06/16/2014]

Vislink & ND SatComm enter into agreement giving the companies access to each other’s product portfolios.
[IPTV News – 06/16/2014]

Scientist rescued after fall in Nepal in May will embark on a Peruvian expedition carrying the DeLorme inReach satellite communicator that saved him.
[Reuters – 06/16/2014]

As more MSS constellations and more powerful FSS and HTS satellites launch, the satellite mobility market is on the cusp of major change.
{NSR report – June 2014]

The next Italian astronaut to work aboard the International Space Station will be Samantha Cristoforetti and she’s bringing an espresso machine — actually an ISSpresso machine.

It’s a high-tech contraption jointly developed by Lavazza and Argotec. Probably cost a fortune and I don’t care. They deserve a good espresso up there.

Using the ISS for marketing is not as easy as it seems — not very glamorous, either. So the folks at Lavazza went a little further and likened it to experiencing espresso at the Moonbase Alpha cafe. They dig old space TV shows — especially stylish ones like Space 1999 (co-produced by Italian broadcaster RAI).

Soyuz-2.1b modernized rocket – Space Daily

Soyuz rocket puts Russian GLONASS-M navigation satellite into orbit.
[GPS Daily – 06/16/2014]

Reportlinker.com announces new market research report analyzing worldwide markets for satellite transponders in number of 36 MHz Transponder Equivalents (TPE) by application area.
[MarketWatch – 06/15/2014]

Proposed AT&T and DirecTV merger heading to streamlined Senate hearings, with little observable opposition.
[eWeek – 06/14/2014]

ReportsnReports.com offers “In-depth Research and Development Forecast of Satellite Application Industry in China, 2014″ report in its store. [Satellite Spotlight – 06/13/2014]

Avanti raises $ 157.5 million in bond market, to be used to begin HYLAS 4 satellite project.
[Hispanic Business – 06/13/2014]

Spacecom is planning new satellites to reach 80 percent of the world by 2020.
[Via Satellite – 06/13/2014]

Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 capsule (interior shown above), Credit: Boeing artist’s concept – Space News

Two companies vying to build space taxis to fly NASA astronauts to the international space station plan to offer unmanned versions of their vehicles in competition for cargo resupply services.
[Space News – 06/13/2014]

Eutelsat taps Siemens to improve satellite monitoring in Latin America.
[RAPIDTV News – 06/13/2014]

Months before awarding sole source contract to United Launch Alliance, the USAF rejected an unsolicited offer from SpaceX to launch GPS 3 satellites for $80 million each.
[Space News – 06/13/2014]

Eutelsat to introduce its 4k Ultra HD TV channel in Asia on the Eutelsat 70B satellite, in partnership with ST Teleport, one of Asia’s leading full-service communications service providers.
[SatNews – 06/13/2014]

European Space Agency modifies frequencies used by some radar Earth observation satellites to reduce the interference from ground-based wireless communications systems often operating illegally.
[Space News – 06/13/2014]

Though DigitalGlobe wins approval to sell its highest-resolution imagery to all customers, regulators reserve the right to impose some restrictions on commercial sales of data from the company’s newest, most capable satellite to be launched in August.
[Space News – 06/13/2014]

More than 300 Chinese space enthusiasts have booked tickets costing nearly $100,000 for a five minute trip to outer space.
[Space Travel – 06/13/2014]

TelOne announces new broadband through satellite product in the United Kingdom.
[TMC News – 06/13/2014]

New report from Markets and Markets defines and segments the global Nano and Microsatellites market, which it projects to be worth $1.887 billion by 2019.
[Satellite Sppotlight – 06/12/2014]

SMi presents the 16th annual Global MilSatCom conference and exhibition – Europe’s leading Military Satellite Communications event.
[University Chronicle – 06/12/2014]

The UK officially joins the US, Canada and the Netherlands in using the Lockheed Martin-produced Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) protected communications satellite system.
[Airforce Technology – 06/12/2014]

Google is in talks with Virgin Galactic about a deal that will hand it crucial access to satellite-launch technology and an equity stake in its space tourism venture.
[Space News – 06/12/2014]

Eutelsat’s KA-SAT during electromagnetic testing. Photo courtesy of Airbus Defence & Space. – SatNews

Eutelsat’s KA-SAT satellite has been selected by Wireless Innovation as part of an emergency mobile communications solution to help protect EDF Energy’s critical infrastructure in the UK.
[SatNews – 06/12/2014]

Eutelsat completes carrier ID implementation for its American coverage satellites in advance of the World Cup.
[The Wall Street Journal – 06/12/2014]

Intelsat and Speedcast join forces to bring market leading broadband and mobility solutions to the Maritime, Oil & Gas and Enterprise sectors.
[University Chronicle – 06/12/2014]

Gilat’s low-profile maritime terminals deployed on naval vessels of an unnamed Asian country.
[Yahoo Finance – 06/12/2014]

McMurdo Group integrates Iridium GO! into its fleet management software.
[Digital Ship – 06/12/2014]

NASA first demonstrated laser communications in space in October 2013. (Artist’s illustration} – Defense Systems

DISA mulls laser system for satellite communications.
[Defense Systems – 06/11/2014]

Google buying satellite maker Skybox for $500 million to improve quality and immediacy of satellite imagery used in its digital maps.
[Top Tech News – 06/11/2014]

The U.S. military’s Africa Command supervises project to improve communications for allies in North Africa and Sahel; awards $8.2 million contract to SES Government Solutions for transponders to support satellite communications from Africom.
[World Tribune – 06/11/2014]

Inmarsat names Satcom Direct Communications a “value added reseller” for Global Xpress.
[ExecutiveGov – 06/11/2014]

Intelsat aims for close cooperation with Azerbaijan`s “Azercosmos” OJSC satellite operator, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Communications and High Technologies reported.
[TMC News – 06/11/2014]

ViaSat focuses on creating a more economically favorable M2M system designed to provide higher speeds, greater security, and faster response to small fixed and mobile terminals.
[Market Watch – 06/11/20104]

Comtech Telecommunications Corp. receives $5.3 million order for Ka-band satellite power amplifiers from an existing customer, to be used in the HTS market.
[Satellite Spotlight – 06/11/2014]

New NovelSat solution for DSNG allows units to deploy multiple cameras through a single satellite modem without requiring additional bandwidth for each camera.
[Via Satellite – 06/11/2014]

WORK Microwave DVB-S2 equipment now features Carrier ID technology.
[Broadcast Newsroom – 06/11/2014]

MultiChoice to expand its leading Direct-to-Home services in sub-Sharan Africa via new Intelsat satellite, Intelsat 36.
[The Wall Street Journal – 06/11/2014]

Globecomm gets orders for WGS certified tri-band satellite terminals.
[BusinessWire – 06/11/2014]

Morelos 3. Photo: Boeing – Via Satellite

Boeing completes second Mexsat 702HP satellite.
[Via Satellite – 06/10/2014]

The High Throughput Satellite Roundtable, which is being organized for the second consecutive year, will feature dynamic new program content developed jointly by GVF and EMP.
[SatNews – 06/10/2014]

Will Google be the new Big “G” in the satellite industry? NSR professes cautious optimism in its analysis of Google’s plans to enter the satellite business.
[SatNews – 06/09/2014]

Financial district in Shanghai – PHYS.ORG

A Chinese military unit has run a hacking campaign that includes sending bogus email in a bid to intercept Western satellite communications and aerospace secrets, a US security firm said.
[PHYS.ORG – 06/10/2014]

Comtech Telecommunications Corp. gets $4.2 million order for DoubleTalk Carrier-in-Carrier satellite modems on behalf of the U.S. Army.
[Yahoo Finance – 06/09/2014]

Not only are we expecting a space weather event…

After producing a pair of R3 (Strong) Radio Blackouts in quick succession yesterday morning (10/1142 and 10/1252 UTC), active Region 2087 produced yet another R3 event today at 11/0906 UTC. Impacts from this activity were short lived and affected HF communications for the daylit side of Earth at the time of the flare. Continuing chances for more events R3 or greater events exists. Unlike yesterday, a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is not believed to be associated with this latest impulsive event. A CME assoicated with the activity yesterday morning has been observed moving at a flank from Earth and a glancing blow to Earth from this event is expected on June 13. An outside chance of at most G1 (Minor) Geomagnetic storms remains in the forecast.

…but we’ve got the Spain-Netherlands match, too! Group B is definitely this World Cup’s “group of death.”

Along with millions on earth, the ISS astronauts will be watching today’s opening match, too.

I like the soccer/football/futbol demo in zero gravity.