Really Rocket Science

The coming switch from analog to digital broadcasting has states scrambling to submit plans to the FCC that outline how they will digitalize and use their current broadcasting licenses.

The state of South Carolina, for example, owns 67 wireless licenses, which are administered by the state agency, SCETV. Those licenses could be used to help deliver broadband to rural residents if a unique bill currently before the South Carolina General Assembly becomes law.

The Times and Democrat explains: 

[State Senator John] Matthews has sponsored legislation that would require the licenses, owned by the state agency, SCETV, to be used to provide a “wireless cloud” over a 10 mile radius of every public school in the state.

The aim is to provide the same accessible, affordable Internet access currently available to urban areas to the less tech-savvy rural communities, Matthews said.

While Matthews views it as an unique opportunity to bridge the economic gap, other legislators see it as a chance to boost state revenues by leasing signals to private companies such as AT&T.

Last year, the House voted to establish the S.C. Wireless Technology and Communications Commission to determine the viability of creating a statewide “wireless cloud.”

The Senate is currently mulling over whether or not that committee will have any legislators on it. Meanwhile, state Rep. Dwight Loftis, R-Greenville, says time is of the essence.

The state has until January 2009 to submit a plan to the FCC on how it will digitalize and use the licenses. The federal government has required that all signals be converted from analog to digital by February 2009.

If the legislature does not move quickly enough, it could lose the licenses and what Loftis hails as an opportunity to be a national leader in broadband technology.

A copy of the bill can be read here; it’s no surprise that one of the chief sponsors of the bill is a retired elementary school principal, given its focus on education.  

If South Carolina enacts the ban, it will be a major victory for those seeking to make high-speed access to the Internet as universal as access to electricity or water. In Connecticut, a similar discussion about the "right to broadband" is turning contentious, as it already has in other states. 

Whether closing the broadband gap comes through the deliberate repurposing of FCC licenses as part of public policy, as in South Carolina, or through broader private access to WiMAX and satellite broadband, there seems little doubt that the gap will close. Wal-Mart, as we’ve blogged recently, is at least one company that is betting that the demand for faster access is rural areas is sure to burgeon in the coming years. 

Things are looking up for the satcom industry.

SES just announced that its first quarter net profit rose 24% in Q1 of 2008.

That surge is reflective of a larger industry-wide trend, and rising demand for satellite-based communications.
As Businessweek puts it, satellite is sexy again:

Some of the biggest names in tech have tried—and failed—to win at satellite communications. Remember Teledesic, a venture begun by wireless pioneer Craig McCaw and Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates aimed at constructing a constellation of hundreds of satellites that transmit high-speed Internet services? Or how about Iridium, or ICO Global Communications (ICOG), or Globalstar (GSAT)?

Those are among myriad efforts to use satellites to beam phone calls and broadband access that were ultimately scrapped or ended up in bankruptcy court, having lost billions of dollars. "Over the history of the industry, there have been a number of ventures that have been restructured and scratched," says Rich Power, an analyst at consulting firm Pike & Fischer.

Yet somehow, satellites are sexy again. Many of the companies that ended up in Chapter 11 have reemerged and are once again drawing investors’ interest. In the past half-year, private equity firms including Harbinger Capital Partners and Silver Lake have poured billions of dollars into satellite companies. In February, BC Partners, Silver Lake, Intelsat management, and other investors acquired satellite broadband provider Intelsat for $17 billion. In March, the Gores Group and other private equity investors snapped up satellite services and networking provider Gilat Satellite Networks for $475 million.

But if satellite is sexy again as an investment, how does one stay up to date with what’s moving and what’s not in the satellite sector?

The Motley Fool site has ten symbols tagged as satellite companies — which is a good start, but not exactly a comprehensive list.

That’s why we’ve created the Really Rocket Science Index — to give investors and satcom fans the ability to track the movement of the satellite sector as a whole.

The Really Rocket Science Index tallies the current stock prices of major satellite companies throughout the world. Currently, 28 companies comprise the index, from Boeing and Hughes to SES and Gilat.

The RRSI is updated daily, and will live on the right hand side of our home page. Click here to see the full list of companies on the RRSI and to view a feed of the latest news from indexed companies. 

You’ve heard about Obamamania. Now rocket mania is sweeping voters, at least in New Mexico.

Voters in Sierra County in the Land of Enchantment have approved a quarter-cent tax to help fund New Mexico’s Spaceport America. The vote, following on the heels of an earlier approval by residents of neighboring Dona Ana county, means that Spaceport America is a go.

We’ve been closely following the race to build a new commercial spaceport to meet the expected needs of space tourism since 2006. (See also this news on Spaceport America from last year.) The results from the tax election in Sierra County virtually guarantee that Spaceport America will be the first new commercial spaceport to open its doors in the United States since the race began for the space tourists’ dollars.

That’s bad news for Spaceport Sheboygan, the Wisconsin spaceport effort that is being heavily promoted by the Great Lakes Aerospace Science and Education Center, among others.

Virgin Galactic will be Spaceport America’s anchor tenant. It’s already in use by the likes of Lockheed Martin, who love Spaceport America’s convenience:

 Spaceport America has launched two unmanned commercial rockets and touts plans for space tourism, but some secret rocket research also is being done.

Lockheed Martin Corporation is now using the spaceport to advance some of its less-publicized technology.

This prototype of Lockheed Martin’s new spacecraft is only one-fifth the size the future vehicle would be.

It looks a bit like the space shuttle and would fly to space and return the same way.  But even the big version would not carry people, just satellites…

For Lockheed Martin Spaceport America in southeastern Sierra County offers the perfect venue for research like this.

"To be able to have a spaceport located down here where we can come in and almost just drop right in, do our thing and then be able to go back home and review the data and then be able to schedule and come back, that is very key for us," Simpson said.

A video of the report on Lockheed Martin at Spaceport America can be seen here. 

An artist’s conception of the inside of Spaceport America’s terminal:

Caption: The matrimonial limo of the future?

We’ve long been proponents of space tourism, and its potential to lead humanity to new levels of experience.

But we’re the first to admit that we hadn’t thought space tourism would lead so quickly to the wedding altar.

The Daily Mail: 

Virgin Galactic boss Sir Richard Branson is planning to set yet another record – by becoming the first man to marry a couple in space.

The 58-year-old billionaire intends to conduct a ceremony 70 miles above the Earth on the first Galactic sub-orbital flight next year.

He has already officiated at one wedding in mid-air. Last year he was ordained for the day in an online church to marry Virgin America marketing director Dimitrios Papadognonas and Coco Jones on a Virgin flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas….

A spokesman for Virgin Galactic told The Mail on Sunday: "We have had two bookings involving marriage, one to get married in space and the other for the couple to have their honeymoon in space.

"It is possible that Richard could obtain a licence to conduct the marriage."

The couple who have booked in for a honeymoon on the £100,000-a-ticket maiden flight are Virgin Galactic adviser George Whitesides and his new wife, Loretta Hidalgo.

The Virgin Galactic space project is progressing at a dramatic rate and customers will take part in the first test flights this summer.

We suppose we should have seen this coming, what with the rise in popularity of destination weddings. Not to mention the Mile High Club.

But how will they keep the cans from falling off the back of SpaceShipTwo? 

Perhaps we’re being too flippant. The respected French scientific writer Pierre Kohler might tsk tsk us for our snark. "The issue of sex in space is a serious one," he says:

"The experiments carried out so far relate to missions planned for married couples on the future International Space Station, the successor to Mir. Scientists need to know how far sexual relations are possible without gravity."

He cites a confidential Nasa report on a space shuttle mission in 1996. A project codenamed STS-XX was to explore sexual positions possible in a weightless atmosphere.

Twenty positions were tested by computer simulation to obtain the best 10, he says. "Two guinea pigs then tested them in real zero-gravity conditions. The results were videotaped but are considered so sensitive that even Nasa was only given a censored version."

Censored guinea pigs? It just gets better and better.

The guinea pigs caught the attention of quite a few internet surfers, who, we’re told, spend an inordinate amount of time looking for such things. 

We’re reminded of what futurist Arthur C. Clarke once speculated about the future of mankind in space. "Weightlessness will bring new forms of erotica," he said. "About time, too.”  

"Amid a flurry of legal wranglings, charges and countercharges, a North Salt Lake company and three former associates are in a tug-of-war over nuclear-powered space tugs, with perhaps billions of dollars at stake," the Salt Lake Tribune reports:

IOSTAR and its founder and CEO have filed suit against the three former associates, alleging theft of corporate secrets in order to develop competing satellites. In a counterclaim, the three allege that the CEO has misappropriated millions of dollars and violated tax and securities law.

To date, no satellites have been developed, let alone launched. IOSTAR has seen its board of directors implode through dismissals or resignations. And a tangled web of companies and current and former officers is caught in the legal crossfire. 

IOSTAR’s dream of a nuclear-powered satellite that could serve as a tug pulling other satellites from a low orbit, where it’s cheaper to launch them into their proper orbits, is shared by many companies. Last December, Loral wanted in on the Space Tug proposal:

The Space System/Loral-team would use the company’s proven 1300-series satellite bus as a refuelable space tug that would remain in orbit for as long as 10 years. After docking with and escorting an essentially dumb cargo vessel to the [International Space Station], the vehicle would also remove it from the station and allow it to be deorbited over an ocean. 

While the space tug legal wranglings work themselves out in Utah, the ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) — the "most powerful space tug ever built" — is proving to be an indispensable ISS supply ship.

Approximately every 17 months, ATV is scheduled to carry 7.7 tonnes of cargo to the Station 400 km above the Earth. An onboard high precision navigation system will automatically guide ATV on a rendezvous trajectory towards ISS, where it will dock with the Station’s Russian service module Zvezda.

We blogged about ATV’s launch last month. The ISS is getting good use out of the ATV, as today’s status report from the ISS indicates. ATV1 is scheduled to undock from the ISS in August of this year.

Yesterday at 4:12 pm at Cape Canaveral, an Atlas 5 rocket successfully lifted ICO Global Communications‘ ICO G1 North American geosynchronous satellite, "a mobile communications satellite to assist and entertain Americans on the go."

The launch marked the first commercial flight in two years of an Atlast 5, and the carrying of its heaviest payload ever: 

 Weighing 14,625 pounds, the ICO G1 spacecraft was the heftiest payload ever launched by an Atlas rocket. Built by Space Systems/Loral, the craft stands over 27 feet tall, features a 39-foot-diameter mesh reflector antenna that will be unfurled in space and a pair of power-generating solar wings to span over 100 feet tip-to-tip once extended in orbit.

It’s a pretty bird, the G1:

 The ICO G 1 satellite belongs to the 2-GHz mobile systems, which are driving a growing segment of today’s satellite manufacturing industry.

ICO’s G 1 satellite is based on SS/L’s space-proven LS-1300 platform, which has an excellent record of reliable operation. Its high efficiency solar arrays and lightweight batteries are designed to provide uninterrupted electrical power. In all, SS/L satellites have amassed almost 1,200 years of reliable on-orbit service.

ICO G1 is a next-generation satellite designed to deliver a wide variety of interactive services to mobile and portable devices using ICO’s Mobile Interactive Media (ICO mim™).

The launch marks the first deployment of DVB-SH service in North America. DVB-SH is short for Digital Video Broadcasting – Satellite services to Handhelds; it’s "a physical layer standard for delivering IP based media content and data to handheld terminals such as mobile phones or PDAs, based on a hybrid satellite/terrestrial downlink."

ICO mim addresses a wide variety of consumers’ entertainment, information and two-way communication needs, including live and stored mobile TV in vehicles, interactive navigation, and roadside assistance, all with nationwide coverage.

ICO mim will also initially provide 10-15 channels of premium television content to portable, larger-screen (4.5- to 10-inch) user devices. Initial partners for the trial phase of ICO mim include Alcatel-Lucent.

For a demo video of ICO mim click here. To see the current state of DVB-H reployments, click here.

Here’s the launch video…

The Satcom Africa 2008 conference just wrapped up four days at the Sandton Convention Center in Johannesburg — and naturally that means there’s a bit of news to catch up on from all the tradeshow announcements.

First up, Tatanet announced its plans to set up a satcom network in Africa: 

Tatanet, a satellite communication systems integrator, has bagged a contract to set up a satellite communication to provide internet connectivity across 53 countries across the African continent. The financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.

The company has bagged the order from the public sector unit Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd (TCIL), which is implementing the e-network project on turnkey basis. The network will create a network for tele-medicine, tele-education, internet, video conferencing, telecommunication, and e-governance services, Tatanet said in a statement.

Tatanet, a division of Nelco, is a satellite communication project systems integrator and V-Sat service provider.

Lot of use of the word "bag" as a verb in that excerpt, no?

The UAE’s Yahsat was at Satcom Africa for the first time to remind satcom players that it, too, is moving into the African market:

Yahsat earlier signed an agreement with Arianespace to launch the Yahsat 1A satellite in the second half of 2010. The satellite is currently being manufactured by the consortium of EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space. Another agreement was also signed with International Launch Services (ILS) to launch the Yahsat 1B satellite in first half of 2011. 

And Intelsat, one of the main sponsors of SatCom Africa 2008, is intent on bringing mobile telephone service via satcom to greater parts of Africa: 

 Intelsat currently runs 53 out of the 250 satellites that orbit the earth at a height of 30000km, serving mainly Africa.

The company provides capacity to 200 clients, including Multichoice, Vodacom, Internet Solutions, Verizon Business and national signal distributor Sentech….

Intelsat Africa has identified Africa, where populations are spread out and where the terrain make it too expensive to roll out extensive infrastructure, as its key market for introducing complete cellular coverage.

How will all of these initiatives in Africa effect prices? Ugandan ICT minister Alitumba Nsambu, who delivered the keynote address at the conference, noted that "many African countries regard satellite as an old and expensive technology" that drives up communications costs, leading some nations to turn to undersea cables and optical fibre networks.

That discussion, which has been playing out through legislative wrangling over the allocation of C-band spectrum, continued through the conference. SA’s science and technology minister Mosibudi Mangena, however, noted satellite still had a critical role to play in SA, in addressing the disparity of connectivity:

Satellite can be used in SA to provide connectivity in under-serviced areas, he said. “We view satellite as very important – integrating the country, building a more equal society.”

Hartshorn agreed, stating that the biggest satellite roll-out has been for e-government services. Satellite services are finding their way into the mix and developing applications to serve the poor. “So it’s an exciting time for them.”

Many Americans probably haven’t given Cambodia a great deal of thought since the 1984 film The Killing Fields, though memories of that epic tale of survival against incredible odds were likely rekindled by the recent death of its real life protagonist, Dith Pran, of pancreatic cancer.

But Cambodia, thankfully, has changed dramatically since the days of the Khmer Rouge. Like much of Asia, it’s been experiencing tremendous economic growth: 

GDP growth is expected to average about 9.3% in 2007 and 2008,propelled by a continued expansion of agricultural output and sustained activity in garment exports, tourism, construction, transport and communications,and real estate.

That projected growth in communications was made real on April 3rd, with the announcement of the launch of Cambodia’s first satellite television network: 

PHNOM PENH, April 3 (Xinhua) — The national Television of Kampuchea (TVK) and the Cambodian DTV Network Limited (CDN), a branch of the Shin Satellite Company from Thailand, here on Thursday launched Techo-DTV, the first satellite TV network of Cambodia.

"From now on, people in all the corners of Cambodia will be able to watch all programs of our TV networks easily through this satellite TV network," said Khieu Kahnarith, Cambodian government spokesman and Minister of Information….

Dumrong Kasemset, Chief of Executive for the Shin Satellite Company, said that the main benefit of Techo-DTV service includes digital quality of picture and sound similar to that of DVD and convenience to install at every location of houses and buildings.

The DTV service sells [for] 75 U.S. dollars with satellite dish and antenna.

Urban Cambodian people can now access cable TV networks, while about 20 percent of the 14 million population in remote places can’t access TV service. Satellite TV will be their solution if they can afford it.

The new network marks continued rapid growth of satcom in Southeast Asia. Last August, we blogged about Vietnam’s first satellite, VinSat 1, which is scheduled to lift on April 19th. The $200 million satellite, owned by Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), will provide more than 200 digital television channels and tens of thousands of data transmission and telephone lines to Vietnam.

Will Cambodia be the next country in Southeast Asia to have its own satellite? It’s too soon to tell, but the recent discovery of oil in Cambodia is likely to accelerate its already respectable economic growth. Oil revenues can pay for lots of things, obviously — including entry into the satellite business, as we recently saw in Dubai.

Sky Angel, the "faith and family" direct broadcast satellite service currently available on Echostar 3 at 61.5° West, is moving all the way to an IPTV platform in the United States:

Nancy Christopher, Sky Angel’s VP for Corporate Communication, [says] "Yes, we will be transitioning Sky Angel to a broadband Internet protocol called Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). It’s a proven technology that’s widely used in Europe and Asia and gaining popularity in the U.S. We already deliver our service into Canada using this technology."

IPTV provides viewers value-added services and conveniences such as the ability to set up their own equipment (no outside dish or antenna or professionally installed equipment needed), to retrieve programs that have already aired, much like a personal video recorder, and to utilize Video on Demand. IPTV enables programs to be viewed on conventional TVs, personal computers and handheld instruments, which will provide viewers the benefit of receiving programs at home and on the go. Enhanced programming, additional channels and more choices of programming packages for individual subscribers are other features afforded by IPTV.

The move is not without its controversies, as some of the comments over at Phil Cooke’s blog indicate. Some lifetime subscribers question whether abandoning satcom means abandoning Sky Angel’s vision of spreading the Gospel throughout the world. But with Sky Angel having already transferred their licenses to Echostar, the deal is done.

Defenders of the move note that more channels will be made available at the same price on the IPTV platform. Sky Angel just last week added the CBS College Sports network to its line up; and, unlike some cable operators, Sky Angel on IPTV will include the much-in-demand NFL Network.

Of course, Sky Angel’s news and religious channels will continue to provide coverage of major religious events, like the Pope’s upcoming visit to the United States. 

The move to IPTV isn’t the first time Sky Angel has been among the first to set up shop on the borders of new broadcasting technologies:

Sky Angel led the way in exploring and then utilizing another cutting-edge technology known as direct broadcast satellite (DBS) when DBS was in its infancy back in the 1980’s. Sky Angel was actually the second company to apply to the FCC for a DBS license back in 1981 when DBS was actually untested technology. Back then, frequency spectrum and orbital slots were yet to be assigned, and there was no satellite manufacturer with a high-power DBS satellite design; the DBS technology was widely opposed by television station and cable industry trade groups back then. Of course, DBS came into its own during the ’90’s. In 1999, Sky Angel became the sole surviving DBS pioneer from that first round of nine 1981 DBS licensees when USSB merged with DirecTV (DISH and DirecTV acquired their licenses later).

You can learn more about Sky Angel on their corporate website. 

Ok, it’s not really a DIY project. But we were mighty impressed by the news yesterday that Xcor’s Lynx Rocketplane (er, suborbital vehicle) could be bringing people into space within 2 years.

Bringing two people to an altitude of 200,000 feet is as close as you might get to DIY Space Travel — especially if the guy sitting next to you can’t fly.

The LA Times has more: 

Xcor Aerospace Inc. announced Wednesday that it would enter the space tourism market with a rocket plane that would carry passengers for about $100,000 a ride.

The Lynx will take off under its own power, carrying just a pilot and a single passenger, the Mojave, Calif., company said at a news conference in Beverly Hills.

Each flight will reach an altitude of 200,000 feet, close enough to space that passengers will experience about 90 seconds of weightlessness. Flight testing of the Lynx is expected to begin in 2010.

Popular Mechanics notes:

XCOR, however, does not plan to operate the space plane—only to build it, with Air Force Research Laboratory funding allegedly helping to test some of Lynx’s technology. If nothing else, XCOR’s announcement is yet another sign that private-space companies are finding access to funding and engineers, so that NASA won’t be the only agency heading north—way north—anytime soon.  

So what will it be like to fly in the Lynx? Check out the animated video from the company, conveniently posted for us space buffs on YouTube:

Also be sure to read the press release for more information, including a nice diagram (PDF) of the Lynx’s flight profile.