Satellite News Bits

 

 

 

For the week ending 13 March 2009, courtesy of Bill McDonald:

Inmarsat reports 20% jump in revenue, representative of strong earnings being reported by the world’s largest satellite-services companies, apparently unaffected by current economic climate. [Wall Street Journal – 03/13/2009]

North Korea notifies international agencies that it plans to launch a satellite between April 4 and April 8; U.S. and south Korea say there are signs North Korea may test a missile capable of reaching Alaska. [Bloomberg – 03/12/2009]

Japan warns North Korea, saying it can legally shoot down any threatening object if it falls toward its territory. [New York Times – 03/13/2009]

Five years since last its reboot, Odyssey’s backup systems are restored by a restart, and other systems may also be restored. [SatNews – 03/13/2009]

Arianespace and European Space Agency elect to postpone launch of Herschel and Planck satellites to perform additional ground segment checks. [SatNews – 03/13/2009]

Astronauts evacuate International Space Station as a piece of space debris is expected to pass close to the station. [SatNews – 03/12/2009]

The U.S. Air Force will launch the second Wideband Global Satellite Communications satellite aboard an Atlas V rocket on March 14. [Patrick AFB News – 03/12/2009]

Iridium places backup satellite in service for satellite lost in collision with Russian satellite over Siberia in February. [msnbc – 03/12/2009]

W3C satellite commissioned by Eutelsat, to be built by Thales Alenia Space, a rapid satellite order following the decision in January not to integrate W2M into its fleet due to a major anomaly which occurred during its transfer to its operating orbit position. [SatNews – 03/12/2009]

Networkfleet, Inc. uses high-resolution satellite and hybrid maps to observe vehicles in a real-world setting with 3-D Earth imagery. [SatNews – 03/12/2009]

SpaceX completes full mission firing of Merlin vacuum engine. [Satellite today – 03/12/2009]

Financially struggling Sirius XM Radio plans to stream its subscription radio service to the iPhone and iPod Touch devices from Apple this spring. [CED Magazine – 03/12/2009]

AsiaSat will deregister from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and terminate its reporting obligations. [Satellite Today – 03/12/2009]

The Society of Satellite Professionals International will induct five new members into its Satellite Hall of Fame on March 25. [SatNews – 03/11/2009]

SES Astra will move Astra 2C satellite from 28.2 degrees East to 31.5 degrees East to take over mission of Astra 5A, which is no longer in service. [Satellite Today – 03/11/2009]

France’s Orange Business Services deploys customized satellite communications system for Bourbon marine services group vessels. [Businesswire – 03/11/2009]

Thales Alenia Space gets contract with JSC "Iss – Reshetnev Company" to build payload for Telkom-3 communications satellite for Indonesian operator PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia TdK. [SatNews – 03/11/2009]

International Launch Services gets contract to launch the ViaSat-1 satellite, to be highest capacity North American satellite with 10 times capacity of other Ka band satellites, under construction by Space Systems Loral, on an ILS Proton in the first half of 2011.  [SatNews – 03/11/2009]

SWE-DISH and Saab announce new on-the-move satellite solution designed for both land and marine applications with close to world-wide coverage using Ku band for up to 10 Mbps broadband communications. [Satellite TMCnet – 03/10/2009]

The European Defence Agency announces plan to set up procurement cell to coordinate EU member states’ orders of commercial satellite communications services to improve access at competitive prices. [DefenseNews – 03/09/2009]

NASA’s planet-hunting telescope, Kepler, was launched into space Friday night, March 6, on a mission to search for planets similar to Earth in the far reaches of the Milky Way. [R&D – 03/09/2009]

Satellite and cable TV providers seek to increase profit margins by promoting pay-per-view pornography. [AdvertisingAge – 03/09/2009]

Connecticut satellite and cable TV providers pursue customers who may lose signal as switch from analog to digital TV broadcasting takes place there. [Harford Courant – 03/08/2009]