Really Rocket Science

John Malone says DirecTV is not for sale, though he says the company would at least listen to offers.

[Satellite Today – 11/26/2009]

Eutelsat’s W7 satellite is carried into orbit aboard a Proton Breeze M rocket, marking 4th successful satellite launch for Eutelsat in 2009.
[TransWorldNews – 11/25/2009]

U.S. Air Force plans to launch the third Wideband Global SATCOM satellite on December 2.
[Patrick Air Force Base news – 11/25/2009]

Gilat is chosen by Telefonica del Peru for broadband satellite communications project covering more than 3,500 sites.
[CNN Money – 11/25/2009]

Eutelsat announces that French telecoms operator SFR has selected Eutelsat’s Tooway satellite broadband service to meet demand from its customers beyond ADSL coverage.
[Trading Markets – 11/25/2009]

Spacecom wins Amos 5i contract in Africa worth estimated $6.3m from unnamed customer.
[Satellite Today – 11/25/2009]

Spinning wind sensor antenna on NASA’s QuikSCAT satellite fails after more than a decade of operations, leaving weather forecasters without a critical tool to measure winds inside distant hurricanes and fueling controversy about replacement.
[Spaceflight Now – 11/24/2009]

Preparations move forward at Baikonur Space Center for fourth Land Launch mission, a planned launch on November 29th of the Intelsat 15 satellite, the first Intelsat launch for Land Launch.
[SatNews – 11/24/2009]

MacDonald, Dettwiller and Associates sign $187m contract with Russian Radio Research and Development Institute to provide technology solutions for Russian Express AM5 and AM6 satellites.
[Satellite Today – 11/24/2009]

Serbia becomes EUMETSAT’s latest cooperating state following ratification process.
[SatNews – 11/24/2009]

iDirect announces that Belgium Satellite Services has installed iDirect Universal Satellite Hub to strengthen capabilities and reach of its IP satellite broadband offerings in Middle East and Africa.
[SatNews – 11/24/2009]

NASA’s Aqua satellite sees Nida explode into a category 5 super typhoon.
[PHYSORG – 11/25/2009]

Russia launches Cosmos-series military satellite aboard a Soyuz rocket.
[Space War – 11/23/2009]

Intelsat 14 is successfully carried into orbit aboard Atlas 5 rocket.
[Spaceflight Now – 11/23/2009]

AsiaSat 3S capacity will be used for live television coverage of the Hong Kong 2009 East Asian Games December 5-12.
[SatNews – 11/23/2009]

Chinese state inquiry determines that a burn-through of its Long March rocket engine’s upper-stage gas generator was the primary cause of failure to place Indonesia’s Palapa-D satellite into proper orbit.
[Satellite Today – 11/23/2009]

Newpoint Technologies and SAT Corporation partner with Clearbox Systems to provide satellite ground station and network management system to BAE Systems of Australia, to support forces accessing Wideband Global SATCOM system.
[CNN Money – 11/23/2009]

Inmarsat completes acquisition of Segovia Inc.
[Wall Street Journal – 11/23/2009]

WBMSAT PS – Satellite Communications Consulting Services

We’ve been waiting for this one. It finally went up at 1:55 EST, while I slept…

Thanks to SpaceFlightNow for tweeting it, and for this nice photo by Ben Cooper:

One of the good things about living in Florida — besides the warm weather — is watching lots of launches. Here’s an amateur version of this particular launch…

Iran plans to launch its own satellite by 2011, since no one seems willing to help; Iran claims it is a communications satellite – Israel says it is a spy satellite.
[Fox News – 11/20/2009]

The MIRAS instrument on the European Space Agency’s SMOS satellite launched earlier this month, has been switched on and is operating normally – it will map soil moisture and ocean salinity.
[Space Mart – 11/20/2009]

Russia may delay maiden launch of the new Angara carrier rocket, designed to put heavy payloads into orbit, for at least one year due to shortage of funds from the Defense Ministry.
[Space Travel – 11/20/2009]

DirecTV announces completion of merger with Liberty Entertainment following Liberty Media stockholders’ OK for split of Liberty Entertainment; acquisition by AT&T or Verizon is a possibility.
[iStockAnalyst – 11/19/2009]   –   [Wall Street Journal blog – 11/20/2009]

NSR industry briefing sees the satellite-based earth observation market entering a phase of impressive growth, expected to generate $6.2B in satellite manufacturing, commercial data, and value added services in 2018.
[NSR – 11/19/2009]

President Obama and Chinese president Hu Jintao agree to expand and formalize U.S.-Chinese discussions on new cooperative space efforts at Beijing summit.
[Spaceflight Now – 11/18/2009]

Quick-thinking Chinese ground controllers able to maneuver high-value Chinese spacecraft out of path of space debris, marking first such save by China, and emphasizing the mounting orbital debris hazards faced by space-faring nations.
[Spaceflight Now – 11/18/2009]

DirecTV chooses Michael white, former vice chairman of PepsiCo, as new CEO; Echostar elevates Michael Dugan to CEO as Charley Ergen vacates the post.
[CED Magazine – 11/18/2009]

Iridium teams with three new partners to expand satellite services offering in Mexico.
[CNN Money – 11/18/2009]

Shuttle Atlantis successfully docks with International Space Station.
[Spaceflight Now – 11/18/2009]

ViaSat offers new Ethernet Service Expansion Module for its Enhance Bandwidth Efficient Modem that promotes Frequency Division Multiple Access across Department of Defense satellite networks.
[SatNews – 11/18/2009]

Sri Lanka signs agreement with Surrey Satellite Technology Limited of the UK to obtain an Earth Observation satellite, representing Sri Lanka’s first communications satellite.
[Space Mart – 11/18/2009]

NASA chief is ready to work with China on space exploration, as Beijing aims to send a manned mission to the moon by around 2020.
[Space Daily – 11/17/2009]

SES invests $75M in O3b to become a key shareholder, aiming to support development of the O3b high-speed satellite internet network.
[Satellite Today – 11/17/2009]

Gilat reports third quarter revenue decline, and announces hiring of former Intelsat General president Susan Miller as SIGS CEO.
[Satellite Today – 11/17/2009]

Spot LLC responds to budget conscious holiday shoppers by offering a $50 Holiday Rebate for the SPOT Satellite Personal Tracker, the award-winning personal and portable satellite-based communications messenger.
[CNN Money – 11/17/2009]

SatMax completes installation of Iridium satellite communications repeater systems for ITT Corporation; the Defense Department plans to use SatMAX systems indoors to provide non-line-of-site access to Iridium satellites.
[CNN Money – 11/17/2009]

Stratos Global is recognized by the World Teleport Association as the world’s largest independent teleport operator again in 2009.
[PR Newswire – 11/17/2009]

SpaceX protests U.S. Air Force contract award to Orbital Sciences Corp. for missile hardware.
[Satellite Today – 11/17/2009]

KVH TracPhone V7 and mini-VSAT Broadband service will be deployed by the United States Coast Guard on its 110 ft. and 225 ft. cutters.
[SatNews – 11/17/2009]

Spot Image Corporation and the U.S. Geological Survey have begun to distribute, over the internet, SPOT satellite data collected over North America between 1986 and 1998.
[SatNews – 11/17/2009]

Eutelsat and Asia Broadcast Satellite strike strategic agreement for cooperation at 75 Degrees East position in satellite orbital arc.
[PR Newswire – 11/16/2009]

Stratos Global expands its line of Stratos MobileLink fixed-to-mobile calling services, enabling fast, affordable connectivity from fixed locations to Iridium and Inmarsat mobile satellite terminals, to help customer avoid high tariffs charged by local telephone companies.
[SatNews – 11/16/2009]

Newtec’s Sat3Play and ASTRA2Connect internet connection rated EXCELLENT by leading independent German consumer organization group.
[SatNews – 11/16/2009]

TCS acquires substantially all of the assets of Sidereal Solutions, Inc., a satellite communications technology engineering, operations, and maintenance support services company.
[SatNews – 11/16/2009]

Atlas launch of Intelsat 14 is halted due to power interruption to Ordnance Remote Control Assembly; launch will be rescheduled following the space shuttle Atlantis launch.
[Universe Today – 11/15/2009]

NSR report – Global Satellite-Base Earth Observation – the industry has taken rapid strides in the last decade, reinventing itself by expanding application base from military and weather to industries including infrastructure, energy, and insurance.
[NSR Report – November 2009]

NSR Report – Global Assessment of Satellite Supply & Demand, 6th Edition – was Intelat’s purchase of ProtoStar-1 for $210M a good deal or not?
[NSR Report – November 2009]

FCC claims that cable and satellite set-top-boxes may be impeding the growth of broadband internet connectivity into homes.
[Washington Post blog Post Tech – November 2009]

WBMSAT PS – Satellite Communications Consulting Services

Nice effect by Red Huber of the Orlando Sentinel. Check it out and you’ll see why you shouldn’t stand so close to the pad…

Yes, rocket scientists, the moment we’ve been waiting for is almost upon us. Cisco’s on-board router, a USAF payload hosted by the Intelsat 14 spacecraft, is scheduled to launch on Friday:

 A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, on behalf of Lockheed Martin Space Launch Services, will launch the commercial Intelsat-14 satellite from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., Nov. 14 with a launch window of 12:48 – 2:18 a.m. EST. If the launch scrubs a day, the window for Nov. 15 will remain the same.

With the launch of Intelsat-14, nearly half of the Atlas V launches in program history will have been commercial missions, with nine commercial missions and 10 government missions. The Intelsat-14 spacecraft will provide high-powered video and data services through its 40 C-band and 22 Ku-band payload to customers throughout the Americas, Europe and Africa. Additionally, Intelsat-14. Additionally, Intlesat-14 hosts a payload for the Internet Router in Space, or IRIS program, for the Department of Defense.

The launch will be broadcast live via Galaxy 16, after midnight from Cape Canaveral:

Satellite: Galaxy-16
Transponder: 08 C
Band: C-Band Analog
Orbital Location: 99° W;
Uplink Frequency: 6085 MHz Horizontal;
Downlink Frequency: 3860 MHz Vertical;
Bandwidth: 36 MHz
Audio Subcarrier: 6.2 and 6.8

TEST TRANSMISSION
Service start: 13 Nov 2009 14:00 ET / 13 Nov 2009 19:00 GMT
Service end: 13 Nov 2009 17:00 ET / 13 Nov 2009 22:00 GMT

LAUNCH BROADCAST TRANSMISSION
Service start: 14 Nov 2009 00:01 ET / 14 Nov 2009 05:01 GMT
Service end: 14 Nov 2009 02:45 ET / 14 Nov 2009 07:45 GMT

The IRIS payload will get the attention, but the 40 C-band transponders will make some money for Intelsat, as IS-14 will replace the old PAS-1R at 45° West (315° East for you old-timers). Lots of full-time video customers located at 45° West.

 IRIS coverage is substantial and what we’ll learn will advance Internet communications via space assets. We hope.

The 1° West orbital location (359° East for you Intelsat old-timers) is about to get hot in the European market. Astra and Eutelsat are the incumbents — primarily using 19.2° East and 13° East, respectively. In Eastern Europe, the growing satellite TV markets have their antennae pointed at 1° West, where Intelsat and Telenor are betting they came fill their capacity quickly. It will be interesting to see how the market reacts over the next year or so.

Thor-6 launches tomorrow, along with NSS-12, via an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana (watch it live here).

Viasat announces it is buying WildBlue Communications for $568M in cash and stock.

[TheStreet.com  – 10/01/2009]

Thales Alenia Space signs contract with APT Satellite Company Limited to design and build APSTAR 7, to provide broadcasting and communications services over the Asia Pacific, Africa, Middle East, and part of Europe.
[SatNews – 10/01/2009]

Ariane 5 delivers two payloads to orbit; Amazonas 2 for Spain’s HISPASAT, the COMSATBw-1 for Germany.
[SatNews – 10/01/2009]

EGNOS, a free satellite navigation network, is launched by the European Union, intended to help pilots, drivers, and blind people by fine tuning GPS accuracy to within 2 meters..
[SatNews – 10/01/2009]

Terrestar Genus hybrid satellite/cell phone is coming to AT&T.
[Digital Trends – 10/01/2009]

Comtech EFData gets $1.1M order from U.S. government for equipment to support the government’s satellite-based communications infrastructure.
[Newsday – 10/01/2009]

TeleCommunications Systems gets $11.7M contract from U.S. Army to provide additional Secret Internet Protocal Router and Non-secure Int ernet Protocal Router FSAT systems to the United States Forces Afghanistan.
[Sys-Con – 10/01/2009]

Soyuz TMA-16 launch carries Jeffrey Williams and Maxim Suraev of the 21st space station crew into space for a six month stay aboard the International Space Station.
[SatNews – 09/30/2009]

B-52 bombers will be getting a new satellite communications system, to be developed and installed by Boeing.
[Minot  Daily News – 09/30/2009]

NSS-12 satellite, the first satellite built by Space Systems/Loral for SES NEW SKIES, is delivered to Kourou launch base for October 29 scheduled launch.
[TMCnet – 09/30/2009]

THOR 6, aTelenor’s latest satellite, arrives safely at Guiana Spaceport In Kourou for scheduled end of October launch.
[SatNews – 09/29/2009]

Terrestar will be able to deliver the most advanced communications services over a large area using a single satellite instead of multiple satellites using 18-meter antenna deflector built and successfully deployed by Harris.
[TMCnet -09/29/2009]

KVH TracPhone FleetBroadband systems receive new "505" emergency calling service which routes calls directly to Coast Guard rescue centers worldwide.
[PRNewswire – 09/28/2009]

China plans to build and launch a communications satellite for Laos.
[RedOrbit – 09/27/2009]

WBMSAT PS – Satellite Communications Consulting Services

Big launch out of the jungle in French Guiana tonight, as an Ariane 5 is scheduled to launch two spacecraft:

The 2,500-kg. COMSATBw-1 plays an important role in the German Bundeswehr’s (German Armed Forces) concept for network-centric operations.  This spacecraft is designed to handle secure information for use by units on deployed missions – including voice, fax, data, video and multimedia applications, with a coverage area that stretches from America to eastern Asia.

COMSATBw-1 will serve as the backbone of a strategic command infrastructure and interface for the Bundeswehr’s tactical arms.  Overall industrial responsibility for the secure communication program is with Milsat Services (a 75% Astrium/25% subsidiary of ND SatCom Defence).

The program’s space segment prime contractor is EADS Astrium, which has booked its two spacecraft for Arianespace launches beginning with COMSATBw-1.  Thales Alenia Space is responsible for integrating the Spacebus satellite bus, while Astrium’s German subsidiary TESAT delivers the payloads.

Accompanying COMSATBw-1 on the upcoming Ariane 5 missions is Amazonas 2, which was built by EADS Astrium using the Eurostar E3000 spacecraft bus, and is to weigh approximately 5,500 kg. at liftoff.  When operational with the Spanish-based HISPASAT telecommunications operator, Amazonas 2 will provide relay capacity over the Americas with a coverage area extending from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.  It carries 54 Ku-band transponders and 10 C-band transponders for the relay of a wide range of communications services, including direct-to-home television.

Watch it live here.

Yesterday’s PSLV launch carried the first Swiss satellite, built entirely by engineering students. No, its not a secret…

"Mission accomplished," said an emotional Muriel Noca, project coordinator at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). "I can’t believe how smoothly it went as so many things can go wrong."

The SwissCube blasted off at 08.22 Central European Time (CET) on Wednesday morning from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in southeastern India, atop the country’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

Twenty minutes later, after ditching the four stages of the rocket, the satellite was placed in orbit at an altitude of 720 kilometres.

A first signal and sign of life brought a huge sigh of relief from the packed EPFL auditorium who came to watch the historic launch.

SwissCube was developed by students from five Swiss engineering schools, three universities and private industry partners, each "bringing their part of the puzzle" under the supervision of the EPFL.

It follows the CubeSat standard, protocols developed by Stanford University and California Polytechnic State University in the United States in 2000, which allow universities and research centres to build their own satellites.

"Building a satellite is something enormous for students. Most of them didn’t know anything about rockets or satellites when they started so we had eight people teaching the 200 students," explained Maurice Borgeaud, director of the EPFL Space Centre.

More about the students in this video…

The rocket scientists at ISRO are indeed a happy bunch today:

In its sixteenth flight conducted from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota today (September 23, 2009), ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C14 successfully launched the 960 kg Indian remote sensing satellite Oceansat-2 and six nano satellites for international customers into a polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). This was the fifteenth successful flight of PSLV. PSLV-C14

After a 51 hour count down, PSLV-C14 lifted off from the first launch pad at SDSC SHAR, at 11:51 am IST with the ignition of the core first stage. The important flight events included the separation of the first stage, ignition of the second stage, separation of the payload fairing at about 125 km altitude after the vehicle had cleared the dense atmosphere, second stage separation, third stage ignition, third stage separation, fourth stage ignition and fourth stage cut-off.

The 960 kg main payload, Oceansat-2, was the first satellite to be injected into orbit at 1081 seconds after lift-off at an altitude of 728 km. About 45 seconds later, four of the six nano satellites were separated in sequence. The initial signals indicate normal health of the satellites.

Oceansat-2 is the sixteenth remote sensing satellite of India. The state-of-the-art Oceansat-2 carries three payloads and has the shape of a cuboid with two solar panels projecting from its sides.

The eight band Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM) payload carried by Oceansat-2 images a swath (strip of land or ocean) of 1420 km width with a resolution of 360 metre and works in the Visible and Near Infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The Ku-band Scatterometer with a 1 metre diameter antenna rotating at 20 rpm, works at a frequency of 13.515 GHz. The Scatterometer covers a swath of 1400 km and operates continuously. ROSA is a GPS Receiver for atmospheric sounding by radio occultation built by Italian Space Agency (ASI).

Soon after separation from PSLV fourth stage, the two solar panels of OCEANSAT-2 were automatically deployed. The satellite’s health is continuously monitored from the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Networks (ISTRAC) Spacecraft Control Centre at Bangalore with the help of a network of ground stations at Bangalore, Lucknow, Mauritius, Biak in Indonesia and Svalbard and Tromso in Norway as well as a station in Troll, Antarctica.

Here’s the video report, via Star News: