Really Rocket Science

O3b’s new satellite constellation to provide high speed connectivity to South Sudan.
[Yahoo Finance – 07/08/2013]

Indian space agency wants second rocket assembly facility
[Space Travel – 07/08/2013]

Russia will launch space freighter on schedule in spite of recent accident with Proton-M carrier rocket.
[Space News – 07/08/2013]

Medvedev demands list of those responsible for rocket crash; Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin instructed to set up government commission to probe crash; environmental impact to be assessed also.
[Space Daily – 07/08/2013]

Lockheed Martin delivers the third of four highly Elliptical Earth Orbit (HEO) satellites for the U.S. Air Forces Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS).
[SatNews – 07/08/2013]

Northrop Grumman test proves new active electronically scanned array (AESA) antenna it developed for the B-2 can establish and maintain communications services with an on-orbit Air Force Advanced EHF (AEHF) communications satellite.
[Yahoo Finance – 07/08/2013]

NSA whistleblower Snowden claims Australian Defence Satellite Communications Facility and other Australian facilities were involved in alleged U.S. ‘snoop-op.’
[SmasHits – 07/08/2013]

ITC Global acquires NewSat Communications.
[Satellite Spotlight – 07/08/2013]

Azercosmos announces 50 radio and TV channels already broadcast via first Azerbaijani satellite. [ABC.AZ – 07/08/2013]

RRSat Inks Deal With Fox International Channels to Enable Broadcasts Expansion to Africa.
[4-traders – 07/08/2013]

PolarSat receives more than $1 million in orders from General Administration of Civil Aviation of China for equipment and technical services to expand existing network to mmore than 400 sites.
[SatNews – 07/08/2013]

Satellite problems cause Russian TV blackouts for around 117 million people.
[Digital TV.net – 07/08/2013]

EUMETSAT increases bandwidth of communications link between Svalbard, Norway and its Darmstadt, Germany headquarters to speed up transfer of data downlinked at Svalbard from Metop and NOAA-19 satellites.
[SatNews – 07/08/2013]

Two Univ. of Michigan engineering professors are turning to the Kickstarter online community to help fund an interplanetary satellite mission.
[R&D Magazine – 07/08/2013]

Indian Space Agency successfully inserts its first navigation satellite, IRNSS-1A, into orbit at 27 degrees.
[Daily News – 07/07/2013]

B-52s to receive communications upgrade that will allow data transfer via satellite links.
[AERO News Network – 07/07/2013]

Satellite communications are the glue that holds long range military operations together.
[Strategy Page – 07/05/2013]

NewSat, the U.S. Ex-Im Bank and COFACE, along with all other parties involved in the financing documentation of the Jabiru-1 satellite, have executed the documents for the US$611 million of funding for the satellite project.
[4 traders – 07/05/2013]

EuropaSat to market SES Broadband Service across Europe.
[Ad Hoc News – 07/05/2013]

Satellite communications market revenue for smart grids to reach $368 million by 2020.
[EIN Presswire – 07/04/2013]

Advantech Wireless successfully deploys hub to Gazprom Space Systems.
[Satellite Evolution Group – 07/04/2013]

Orbital blockade is imposed on Iran.
[Strategy Page – 07/03/2013]

NASA Deep Space Atomic Clock will fly as hosted payload on Surrey Satellite Technology U.S.’ Orbital Testbed Mission.
[Satellite Today – 07/03/2013]

Jason-1 ocean altimetry satellite was decommissioned this week following the loss of its last remaining transmitter.
[Yahoo News – 07/03/2013]

Cobham plans to develop new family of satellite communications systems for data-connected air transport aircraft.
[Satellite Spotlight- 07/03/2013]

Iranian Al-Alam TV channel quotes Iran’s Minister of Communications and Information Technologies as stating that Iran plans to broadcast its satellite TV channels via domestic satellites.
[Satellite Spotlight – 07/02/2013]

Hughes technology seminar in Mexico attended by more than 100 senior-level satellite industry executives discussed future of satellite broadband in the country.
[Satellite Today – 07/03/2013]

Russian Proton-M rocket carrying three of the Russian satellite navigation system’s satellites crashes almost immediately upon launch.
[NextGov – 07/02/2013]

Russian eye-witness videos capture Proton rocket failure.
[Space News – 07/02/2013]

Eutelsat expands partnership with RSCC to serve broadcasting markets across Russia via three key orbital positions.
[The Columbus Dispatch – 07/02/20103]

OHB signs contract for Germany’s next-gen radar satellites.
[Space News – 07/02/2013]

India plans series of satellite launches by March 2014.
[Yahoo News – 07/02/2013]

SES and Supernet renew contract for GSM backhaul in Pakistan.
[Satellite Spotlight – 07/02/2013]

Major South American satellite operator selects Kratos’ SAT to provide satellite interference detection and analysis.
[Yahoo Finance – 07/02/2013]

YahSat announces launch of satellite-based Internet service in the UAE.
[Emirates 24/7 – 07/01/2013]

Gilat Spacenet introduces enhanced WiFi solutions suite.
[boston.com – 07/01/2013]

Iraqi government holds talks with SupremeSAT on a possible joint satellite partnership related to SupremeSAT-2.
[LankaNewspapers – 07/01/2013]

Lockheed Martin-built MUOS satellite encapsulate in launch vehicle payload fairing. [Satellite Spotlight – 07/01/2013]

Rockwell Collins ARC-210 is first airborne radio to demonstrate MUOS satellite signal reception.
[4-traders – 07/01/2013]

U.S. Navy adds $9 million + modification to firm-fixed price contract for AN/WSC-6 E(V)9 satellite communication systems.
[Signal online – 07/01/2013]

‘Global Satellite Market: Trends and Opportunities 2013-2018′ analyzes the potential opportunities and significant trends in the global satellite manufacturing, satellite services and satellite ground equipment markets.
[Research and Markets – July 2013]

New NSR Report Projects Major DTH Shift to the Southern Hemisphere.
[NSR – July 2013]

Video interviews from CommunicAsia 2013 in Singapore.
[Satellite Markets & Research]

 WBMSAT satellite communications consulting services

Awesome footage from SpaceX…

On June 14, SpaceX’s Grasshopper flew 325 m (1066 feet)–higher than Manhattan’s Chrysler Building–before smoothly landing back on the pad. For the first time in this test, Grasshopper made use of its full navigation sensor suite with the F9-R closed loop control flight algorithms to accomplish a precision landing. Most rockets are equipped with sensors to determine position, but these sensors are generally not accurate enough to accomplish the type of precision landing necessary with Grasshopper. Previous Grasshopper tests relied on the other rocket sensors but for this test, an additional, higher accuracy sensor was in the control loop. In other words, SpaceX was directly controlling the vehicle based on new sensor readings, adding a new level of accuracy in sensing the distance between Grasshopper and the ground, enabling a more precise landing. Grasshopper is a 10-story Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) vehicle designed to test the technologies needed to return a rocket back to Earth intact. While most rockets are designed to burn up on atmosphere reentry, SpaceX rockets are being designed not only to withstand reentry, but also to return to the launch pad for a vertical landing. The Grasshopper VTVL vehicle represents a critical step towards this goal. Grasshopper consists of a Falcon 9 rocket first stage tank, Merlin 1D engine, four steel and aluminum landing legs with hydraulic dampers, and a steel support structure.

Footage from the live broadcast of the Proton-M launch failure…

And from further away…

So this is why spectators must watch from 2 miles away. Awesome shockwave.

Cool APOD today:

What would it look like to orbit a black hole? Since the strong gravity of the black hole can significantly alter light paths, conditions would indeed look strange. For one thing, the entire sky would be visible, since even stars behind the black hole would have their light bent to the observer’s eye. For another, the sky near the black hole would appear significantly distorted, with more and more images of the entire sky visible increasingly near the black hole. Most visually striking, perhaps, is the outermost sky image completely contained inside an easily discernible circle known as the Einstein ring. Orbiting a black hole, as shown in the above scientifically-accurate computer-created illustrative video, will show stars that pass nearly directly behind the black hole as zipping around rapidly near the Einstein ring. Although star images near the Einstein ring may appear to move faster than light, no star is actually moving that quickly. The above video is part of a sequence of videos visually exploring the space near a black hole’s event horizon.

NASA’s newest satellite to get close-up look at little-explored region of the sun thought to drive space weather that can affect Earth.
[R&D Magazine – 06/28/2013]

Second MUOS Lockheed Martin-built satellite is encapsulated into its payload fairing. [Satellite Spotlight – 06/28/2013]

Indian Cabinet approves proposal for construction of GSAT-15 and GSAT-16 satellites.
[ANI News – 06/28/2013]

United Launch Alliance (ULA) expects to demonstrate its commercial human spaceflight service in 2016.
[Space News – 06/28/2013]

China’s space program tries to catch up, as its 5th manned space mission returns to Earth.
[Forbes – 06/27/2013]

Thales Alenia Space will be prime contractor for Europe’s Euclid satellite to study dark-energy sources.
[Space News – 06/27/2013]

U.S. Air Force orders seven rockets from United Launch Alliance to launch Air Force and National Reconnaissance Office satellites.
[Space News – 06/27/2013]

NASA experiments performed to validate supercomputer simulations of hypervelocity impacts in space, in effort to design better shielding against collisions with space junk.
[R&D Magazine – 06/27/2013]

Globecomm Systems announces launch of Cytelics, an end-to-end cyber security solutions service available through its Comsource subsidiary.
SatNews – 06/27/2013]

Satellite antennas in Kenya repurposed for space exploration as arrival of fiber communication links reduce reliance on satellite links.
[VOA News – 06/27/2013]

SANDRA system, successfully tested in Germany, brings the most advanced multilink communications to aircraft, integrating L-band and Ku-band satellite links as well as ground links and VHF data links.
[Aviation Pros – 06/27/2013]

Inmarsat’s first fully assembled Global Xpress satellite successfully passes milestone testing.
[4 traders – 06/27/2013]

ViaSat selects InnoMedia products for its Exede Voice home telephone service.
[paidContent – 06/27/2013]

Telespazio CEO sees acquisition of Italy’s Avio rocket builder as enhancing product portfolio, and says Telespazio’s parent company Finmeccanica will bid against Astrium and Safran/Snecma for Avio.
[Space News – 06/27/2013]

Satellite operators fight back against signal interference – part II of Satellite Today report.
[Satellite Today – 06/27/2013]

Russian Soyuz rocket launches 4 O3b communications satellites into orbit from the jungle of South America (French Guiana).
[Space.com – 06/26/2013]

Gilat provides satellite communication infrastructure for Peru’s “PIASS: program, a ship traveling the Amazon bringing medical, educational, and banking services to isolated villages.
[SatNews – 06/26/2013]

Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Ministry of Communications and Media of the Russian Federation facilitate training of Russian specialists at Astrium’s facilities.
[Satellite Today – 06/25/2013]

O3b medium earth orbit satellites expected to bring cheaper and faster broadband, with latency of less than 130 milliseconds, to customers everywhere around the world within 45 degrees north and 45 degrees south latitude.
[Next Big Future – 06/25/2013]

Globalstar and Jarvinian successfully test experimental Terrestrial Low Power Service using satellite spectrum, with goal to reduce Wi-Fi congestion by deploying 802.11 compliant technology over Globalstar’s frequencies.
[GCN – 06/27/2013]

Orbital Sciences lawsuit seeks $1.5 billion from Lockheed Martin and Boeing venture.
[Satellite Today – 06/25/2013]

Sprint shareholders approve company’s sale to Japan’s SoftBank; Dish also unlikely to win against Sprint in takeover fight for Clearwire – what’s next for Dish?
[Quartz – 06/25/2013]

Intelsat and Ericsson demonstrate true 4K end-to-end video transmission via satellite.
[Investor Center – 06/25/2013]

Federal Signal Alerting & Notification Systems completes first phase of statewide emergency warning system upgrade in Hawaii, replacing existing networks with redundant satellite and cellular communications.
[Yahoo Finance – 06/25/2013]

Communications & Power Industries (CPI) acquires MCL Inc., a manufacturer of power amplifier products and systems for the satellite communications market, and a wholly owned subsidiary of MITEQ Inc.
[Yahoo Finance – 06/25/2013]

RRsat breaks into Russian market with new office in Moscow.
[Satellite Today – 06/24/2013]

New NSR report to analyze key trends, drivers, and restraints facing the Direct-to-Home satellite TV market.
[NSR – July 2013]

NSR report analyzes the upcoming programs and game changing elements in the wireless backhaul via satellite market and offers new perspective for market players looking for the inside edge.
[NSR – June 2013]

 WBMSAT satellite communications consulting services

Happy people at O3b Networks, watching their payload launch into space yesterday.

Armenian government official says the former Soviet republic will launch its own satellite into orbit, with the newly created company called Armcosmos now busy registering an orbital position for the satellite.
[Ria Novosti – 06/23/2013]

Speedcast announces buyout of Pactel.
[Satellite Today – 06/23/2013]

SES, Inverto, Abilis and MaxLinear partner to develop IP-LNB for satellite TV home distribution.
[Satellite Today – 06/22/2013]

Republican-backed NASA authorization bill backs development of crew transportation systems to end reliance on Russia.
[Space Mart – 06/21/2013]

ESA’s SatFinAfrica pilot project begun in 2011 was so successful that a company called SatADSL was established in Belgium to provide SATCOM for financial services to Africa and now serves more than 100 offices.
[SatNews – 06/21/2013]

Turkmenistan’s first satellite to be launched by SpaceX, under contract with Thales Alenia Space.
[Venture Beat – 06/21/2013]

Intelsat decides to stop providing satellite services in Iran.
[SatNews – 06/21/2013]

EUSATCOM 203 coming up in Amsterdam at the Casa 400 conference centre on June 27th. [SatNews – 06/21/2013]

GVF expands its VSAT Installation Training & Certification in Asia Pacific.
[Satellite Today – 06/21/2013]

Secret, highly secure quantum communications system used at Chinese Party Congress in Beijing.
[South China Post – 06/21/20013]

OHB and Astrium to share work on German radar satellites.
[Space News – 06/21/2013]

Canada becomes first international partner to connect over U.S. Air Force’s protected comms AEHF satellite system.
[Defense Systems – 06/20/2013]

Satellite manufacturing sector cuts jobs in spite of 23 percent revenue increase in 2013.
[Satellite Today – 06/20/2013]

EUTELSAT 3D goes into full commercial service at 3 degrees East.
[Satellite Evolution Group – 06/20/2013]

Falcon 9 selected to launch German military radar satellites.
[Space News – 06/20/2013]

Astrium Services plans to sign a bulk-purchase agreement with Inmarsat for Ka-band capacity aboard Inmarsat’s three Global Xpress mobile communications satellites.
[Space News – 06/20/2013]

Chinese seek greater share of global satellite-launching market.
[China Daily – 06/20/2013]

Honeywell develops new broadband satcom hardware for Inmarsat’s new Global Xpress Ka-band satellite network.
[AIN online – 06/20/2013]

ViaSat partners with Boeing for inline in-flight satellite connectivity system.
[Satellite Today – 06/20/2013]

World Teleport Association will explore development of quality certification program for teleports based on clearly defined technical and operational standards. [Satellite Evolution Group – 06/20/2013]

Cobham announces Aviator S series at Paris Air Show, which will allow secure data communication for aircraft operation, maintenance and management services.
[SatNews – 06/20/2013]

OmniAccess becomes first iDirect customer to go live with iDX 3.2 and X7, successfully launching a live satellite communications network that reached data throughput of 50 Mbps.
[Satellite Evolution Group – 06/20/2013]

European Defense Agency says consolidating European countries’ military telecommunications satellite networks would result in huge savings, but obstacles are faced if European defence ministries fear their budgets would be cut.
[Space News – 06/19/2013]

European rocket designers crafting a defense against U.S. startup rocket builder SpaceX.
[Space News – 06/19/2013]

Scientists and engineers from around the world meet in South Dakota to discuss collecting images from Landsat 8.
[R&D Magazine – 06/19/2013]

Mexico’s state-owned Mexsat system to be augmented by second nearly six-ton Centenario satellite in 2014.
[Fox News – 06/19/2013]

Asia DTH executives outline their satellite capacity plans.
[Satellite Today – 06/19/2013]

ORBIT Technologies receives order for $3 million worth of ORION-based Communications Management Systems to major European aircraft manufacturer.
[SatNews – 06/19/2013]

Gilat Satellite Networks and Thaicom sign Cooperation Framework Agreement to provide customers across the Asia -Pacific regions with integrated solution using Gilat’s ground equipment and the Thaicom 4 satellite.
[Satellite Today – 06/19/2013]

O3b signs deal with Maju Nusa to provide ultra-high speed 3G backhaul services across rural Malaysia.
[National Post – 06/19/2013]

SpeedCast sees substantial gains with Newtec MDM6000 modem on multicarrier applications during intensive trial of Newtec’s latest S2 Extensions and Clean Channel Technology.
[MENAFN – 06/19/2013]

PolarSat’s hubless VSATPlus3 network control algorithms allow for geographic redundancy and ensure no single point of network failure is ever present at any one time. [SatNews – 06/19/2013]

The worlds most sophisticated commercial communications satellite, Alphasat, built by Astrium for Inmarsat, and carrying four technological demonstration payloads for ESA, is shipped to its launch site in Kourou, French Guiana.
[Astrowatch – 06/18/2013]

Sprint files suit to stop Clearwire, DISH tie-up.
[Bloomberg – 06/18/2013]

Thuraya strengthens its partnership with Astrium Services with launch of IP+, SatSleeve and Maritime Broadband in Asia.
[Herald online – 06/18/2013]

Initial Defense Communications Satellite Program launched first cluster of 7 small satellites 47 years ago.
[Seattle PI – 06/18/2013]

SES CEO Romain Bausch to be succeeded by Karim Michel Sabbagh.
[boston.com – 06/17/2013]

Google Internet balloons – what do they mean for VSAT, and satellite communications in general?
[Newtec blog – 06/17/2013]

Lockheed Martin promises to support South Korea’s effort to develop and launch military communications satellites if it wins Seoul’s multi-billion dollar fighter jet deal.
[Global Post. – 06/17/2013]

Watch George Clooney Puts Spotlight on Bloodshed, Crisis in Sudan on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

George Clooney’s Satellite Sentinel project reveals war crimes and security violations using DigitalGlobe imagery.
[Satellite Today – 06/17/2013]

 WBMSAT satellite communications consulting services

Naturally, Arianespace participates in the Paris Air Show and the swirling questions are related to a competitor who isn’t there: SpaceX. Their response is predictable and defensive, and with a billion euros at stake, can you blame them?

There’s a real need for commercial launch services and well-run commercial satellite operators want to make sure there’s viable set of competitors out there. Spreading business around to Sea-Launch, Arianespace and ILS (Proton) helps keep them in business and assures the operators a way into space when needed. Commercial launches from Cape Canaveral were always preferred — both for location and reliability. The cost, however, made the bean-counters squirm.

Reading the Reuters report by Irene Klotz about how there were no commercial launches struck me as naive. The U.S. Air Force reserved all the available launch vehicle manifests for Atlas and Delta in the U.S. for their payloads — not because of competition from foreign-based companies. Yes, there’s the cost factor. If you could save $20 million on a single launch by going to Kazakhstan or French Guiana, why not?

And that’s why SpaceX is set to grab a bunch of business by launching from the Cape at a lower cost. If you factor in the prospect of all-electric spacecraft, then you could see a seismic shift in the market dynamics of launch services. So you shouldn’t wonder why Arianespace is being defensive, as cited by Space News…

One of the Falcon 9’s most potent arguments is that it is capable of carrying two all-electric-propulsion satellites at a time into geostationary transfer orbit. But according to the first customer of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems’ all-electric 702SP platform, Satmex of Mexico, it will take the Satmex satellite about eight months to reach its final orbital position and begin generating revenue.

Factoring in a longer orbit-raising into the overall spacecraft replacement cycle is certainly possible. Now, if only satellite operators start passing along these savings from simplified spacecraft design, lower-cost launch and cost-effective propulsion systems to lowering the cost of leasing bandwidth to customers remains to be seen.

The executive succession at SES S.A. has begun, with the anointment of Dr. Karim Sabbagh and CEO-designate, replacing Romain Bausch in April of 2014. Holding dual citizenship in Canada and Lebanon, he’s been in Dubai for years and apparently knows his Arabic Internet trends.

What I’m most excited about is his background with Leo Burnett MENA (lame Flash site), where he may have learned how important it is for a company to have a sense of personality. SES, which used to stand for Société Européenne des Satellites, clearly needs to find it’s global brand and tell people what it stands for besides being “your satellite company.”

Rocket scientists who care about marketing space-based businesses will be watching this closely.

Δεν μπορείτε να σταματήσετε ελληνική TV!

The Greek government shut down state broadcaster ERT for austerity budgeting reasons, letting go a few thousand employees. So they took it upon themselves to go pirate and broadcast via the EBU last week. Via HuffPo…

Journalists from axed Greek state broadcaster ERT returned to the airwaves Thursday amid an escalating crisis that saw the country rocked by a general strike, a sharp rebuke from Europe’s top human rights official and widening divisions in the fragile coalition government.

Officials at the Geneva-based European Broadcasting Union on Thursday said they had successfully relayed a live pirate broadcast from the sacked journalists to Greece, Europe, Asia and Oceania. The move is in defiance of the country’s conservative-led government, which shut down state TV and radio Tuesday as part of the its austerity measures.

“We have just had our signal broadcast on satellite. We thank everyone who helped us,” ERT newsreader and union representative Chrysa Roumlelioti said on the broadcast.

Way to go, EBU — rile up the Greek government.