Really Rocket Science

Watched the launch in real-time via NDTV from Sriharikota. The launch was good, with the first stage firing perfectly (of course). The second stage burned as planned. ISRO did confirm the indigenous cryogenic engine ingnited, then telemetry data indicated the launch vehicle was tumbling and subsequently contact was lost.

After 18 years of hard work by many at ISRO, the launch is considered a limited success. They’re determined to try again in one year.

The protesting Red Shirts in Thailand have seized the Thaicom uplink to ensure news broadcasts remain uninterrupted, via Political Prisoners in Thailand blog…

The Bangkok Post (9 April 2010) reports that People TV satellite uploader Thaicom, “the country’s sole satellite service provider, said the government’s blocking of the red shirts’ People Channel television station (PTV) had severely damaged its international reputation.The company said foreign customers using the same transponder as PTV were threatening to sue Thaicom for their losses. An executive expressed concern that interference with the station’s signals could damage the satellite’s transponder.” He added “Despite the fact that signal jamming violates our contract and causes severe damage to our reputation, we must follow the order…”.

In response to the closing of People TV, The Nation (9 April 2010) reports that red shirts have broken through army “barricades and entered ThaiCom uplink station’s compound and were trying to enter the station’s buildings in Lat Lum Kaew, Pathum Thani province at about 2.40pm.”

The army used “smoke bombs” but were unable to stop the “thousands” of demonstrators who reportedly “seized police trucks park[ed] inside the compound and forced open and seized weapons from the trucks.” No evidence of this weapons claim presented anywhere else, including on a BBC report from the compound [but see update below].

There were said to be 7,000 anti-riot forces at the Thaicom site.

It is reported that red-shirt leader Jatuporn Promphan had “urged the red shirts to stay calm and not to raid the satellite uplink station.” However, when it became clear that the anti-riot forces were making “preparations for crowd control” the red shirts responded. These troops “were seen deploy[ing] the water cannon to deter the crowds after devices emitting heav[y] smoke were thrown from the crowds.”

By 5.20 p.m., the government had apparently agreed to restore the People TV broadcast. The Nation reports that “red-shirt leader Natthawut Saikua said the red shirts had succeeded to force Thaicom uplink station to resume its satellite service to PTV.  The negotiations was brokered by Provincial Police Region 1 chief Lt General Krisada Pankongchuen. In exchange for the resumption of PTV broadcast, the red shirts agreed to disperse from the uplink station and allow police to gain control of the area.” People TV was back up by about 5.45 p.m.

It was reported that about 20 persons, mainly red shirts were injured in this action.

A brief but important victory for the red shirts but another action to “contain” anti-riot forces is already said to be underway at the Police hospital at the Rajaprasong intersection at around 6 p.m.

Update 1: This latter action seemed to coincide with action at the Rajaprasong area as “customers and workers were asked to leave shopping malls around Rajprasong. Police are reportedly preparing six locations to detain suspects.” This report is associated with a picture gallery at The Nation’s website. Note that the malls had already re-opened.

Update 2: Some international coverage of the Thaicom events: The Times, Christian Science Monitor and The Globe and Mail. Note that this latter report seems oddly different from all others that PPT has seen to date, referring to protesters “Hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails.” It also states that: “After the clash, some security forces were seen throwing down their shields and riot gear and shaking hands with the protesters.” The same report states that, “The Red Shirts offered water to soldiers and police, and showed reporters a small cache of weapons, including M-16 assault rifles and shotguns, they had seized from soldiers.” The government estimated that 15,000 demonstrators were at Thaicom.

Satellites and freedom: gotta love it.

Here’s the video, Thai guys & gals…

European scientists relieved when a Russian rocket put their Cryosat-2 satellite into a perfect Earth orbit after a catastrophic failure of the previous attempt.
[UK Financial Times – 04/09/2010]

SES announces the consolidation of all US Government sales and delivery activities into a single business unit, naming it SES WORLS SKIES, U.S. Government Solutions.
[SatNews – 04/09/2010]

GOES-15 takes its first full-disk visible image of the Earth on April 6.
{SatNews – 04/09/2010]

TCS receives additional $7.1 million in funding from U.S. Army for maintenance of Secret Internet Protocol Router and Non-secure Internet Protocol Router Access Point VSAT terminal systems outside the U.S.
[SatNews – 04/09/2010]

FCC may alter broadband plan to comply with Federal Appeals ruling on Comcast challenge that invalidated the FCC’s Net Neutrality policy.
[Information Week – 04/09/2010]

Expand Networks announces major upgrade to operating system of its Accelerators that will significantly improve functionality, value, and installation.
[SatNews – 04/09/2010]

Canadian phone giant Bell Canada to introduce the country’s first national 3D HD TV broadcast this weekend from the Masters golf tournament on its Bell TV satellite TV service.
[Hollywood Reporter – 04/09/2010]

DISA and GSA preview details of the draft request for proposals for $3.5B commercial satellite communications services planned to be purchased by U.S. government between 2011 and 2016.
[Washington Technology – 04/08/2010]

Intelsat’s Galaxy 15 anomaly did not cause immediate service interruption to customers, but plan to transition to Galaxy 12 is in the works.
[SatNews – 04/08/2010]

MTN signs agreement with Fred.Olsen Cruise Lines, an international shipping company based in Norway, to outfit its entire fleet of ships with MTN’s VSAT equipment and services.
[SatNews – 04/08/2010]

India plans to launch satellite using a rocket powered by a cryogenic engine developed by scientists in India.
[redOrbit – 04/08/2010]

ND SatCom to demonstrate XWARP technology which provides nearly latency-free virtualized and bandwidth-optimized software performance at user’s front end for geographically distributed entities.
[SatNews – 04/08/2010]

VISLINK News & Entertainment to debut latest vehicle-mounted satellite antenna, NewSwift LT, at NAB,
[SatNews – 04/08/2010]

Harmonic will feature 3D television demonstration at NAB in conjunction with Panasonic and DIRECTV.
[SatNews – 04/08/2010]

Chairman John Malone will cut voting interest in DirecTV to about 3% from 24% and leave the board of directors.
[Business Week – 04/06/2010]

SIS LIVE will unveil uPak, a new Ku-band flat-panel antenna system for satellite contribution at low data rates at NAB.
[SatNews – 04/08/2010]

RRSAT to distribute iConcerts High Definition channel on Measat 3A satellite.
[PR Newswire – 04/08/2010]

Latitude Technologies announces receipt of Transport Canada Supplemental Type Certificate number SH10-16 covering Bell Helicopter and Eurocopter models for their satellite based tracking/messaging device SkyNode S100-001.
[SatNews – 04/08/2010]

Comtech EF Data announces availability of the CDM-625 Advance Satellite Modem with IP Packet Processor.
[SatNews – 04/08/2010]

Goodrich to display scale model of its Operationally Responsive Space satellite at Natioinal Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, CO April 12-14.
[SatNews – 04/08/2010]

Federal Appeals cou8rt says the FCC does not have authority to enforce Net Neutrality regulations (part of it’s broadband initiative) on ISPs.
[SatNews – 04/07/2010]

Canadian service provider BCE to use proceeds from sales of its stake in SkyTerra to fund its wired and wireless broadband ambitions.
[Fierce Telecom – 04/07/2010]

Harris Corporation completes successful operational test of first U.S. Navy satellite communications terminal to simultaneously communicate at X and Ka band through single dual-band feed.
[CNN Money – 04/07/2010]

Vizada renews partnership with Telecoms Sans Frontiers; will provide mobile satellite communications services including training program in 2010.
[TMCnet – 04/07/2010]

C-COM receives $750,000 worth of new orders for its iNetVu mobile antenna systems from the Asia Pacific region.
[SatNews – 04/07/2010]

Newtec announces multi-million US$ order from North America’s leading provider of horse and greyhound simulcast racing for high definition and IP based DVB-S2 using its DualFlow technology.
[SatNews – 04/07/2010]

SES ASTRA announces scheduled launch for ASTRA 3B of April 9.
[SatNews – 04/07/2010]

SES WORLD SKIES announces that its SES-1 satellite has safely arrived at the Baikonour Cosmodrome, scheduled for April 24 liftoff.
[SatNews – 04/06/2010]

NASA signs $335M modification to current International Space Station contract with Russian Federal Space Agency for crew transportation, rescue, and related services in 2013 and 2014.
[SatNews – 04/06/2010]

CPI gets $3.8M contract from Harris to provide satellite communications amplifiers for Navy program meant to boost broadband capability of Navy ships 10 fold.
[San Francisco Business Times – 04/06/2010]

SPOT sponsors Backpacker Magazine’s 10th annual Get Out More Tour, a national interactive mobile media and education road tour..
[SatNews – 04/06/2010]

Bolivia, China sign satellite launching agreement; Chinese will help Bolivia launch communications satellite "Tupac Katari."
[Space Travel – 04/06/2010]

iDirect announces Global Crossing launch of next-generation satellite network for Brazilian ISPs and enterprises using iDirect Series 14000 universal satellite hub and 600 X3 satellite remotes, with plans to service as many as 2000 sites.
[SatNews – 04/06/2010]

WBMSAT PS – Satellite Communications Consulting Services

The Indian Space Research Organization is hoping it’s launch of GSAT-4 on 15 April 2010, using a 4th stage cryogenic engine they developed themselves, will allow India to join the rocket launch club, via the BBC:

The new engine is being incorporated into the upper-stage of India’s Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

"It is a complex strategy technology," said Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) Chairman K Radhakrishnan.

He said the rocket would send a heavy communications satellite into space on 15 April from the country’s launch pad at Sriharikota in eastern India.

Dr Radhakrishnan told reporters in Banglalore that the technology was home grown because "one country stopped another country in giving this technology to India".

India began developing cryogenic technology after Russia reneged on a deal to supply cryogenic engines in 1993 – following pressure from the United States, which believed India was using the technology to power missiles.

"The best reply is to… build your own technology," Dr Radhakrishnan said.

India has been using Russian engines to launch heavier satellites into space for some time. It joins the US, Russia, Japan and China in having developed cryogenic engines.

India hopes to emerge as a global player in the multi-billion dollar satellite launch market.

 Adding another reliable launch service provider for heavy payloads will be a game-changer.

 Just days after the SES-1 spacecraft arrived in Baikonur from Dulles, Intelsat lost control of Galaxy-15. Both spacecraft are based on Orbital’s Star-2 bus, which means the 4-week launch campaign’s schedule may slip.

The immediate impact for Intelsat is to transition customer to an in-orbit spare, Galaxy-12, from 123° West to 133° West. Sounds simeple, but it’s not. It is likely the engineers are concerned about future Orbital spacecraft. Galaxy-12 is also a Star-2 bus, so they won’t relax until they know what the root cause of the failure was. Same goes for all who have one in-orbit or being built. Sure, Indostar-1 had some problems, but that’s probably been fixed on subsequent spacecraft.

For SES, replacing the spacecraft co-located at 101° West, AMC-4 and AMC-2, is critical. With so much at stake, it would be prudent to delay the launch if there are doubts about future performance. They’ve got enough trouble as it is. Fix it before it flies.

But here’s the real, immediate operational challenge: how do you transition customers if you don’t control one of the spacecraft? Then, how do you get it out of the way so it doesn’t interfere with adjacent spacecraft? Take, for example, C-SPAN on AMC-11 at 131°W, operating on transponder 7, 3840V. The Fox Sports mux is on Galaxy-15 at 133°W, transponder 7, 3840V. Now we’ve got a real problem: same frequencies, and the operators on the ground can’t communicate with G15, so they can’t turn it off. Get my drift?

Both SES and Intelsat have a real problem on their hands. Something always happens in time for the NAB show in Las Vegas.

Gilat is engaged to deliver its SkyEdge II-based satelli8te network technology to support a border security program of an undisclosed Latin American country.
[UPI – 04/02/2010]

European Space Policy Institute to release fourth volume in series of publications evaluating how to achieve sustainable use of space by means of respecting fairness and responsibility.
[SatNews – 04/02/2010]

Fourth annual Military Satellites Summit April 27 – 28 in Tysons Corner, VA, is announced by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement.
[dBusinessNews – 04/02/2010]

Ocean Systems Engineering will provide a wide variety of services and support relating to satellite communications to the Marine Corps under $13.1 million order.
[Washington Technology – 04/02/2010]

ARINC becomes Distribution Partner for SwiftBroadband service from Inmarsat.
[SatNews – 04/01/2010].

Gantry for Russian Soyuz rocket at Arianespace facility in French Guiana takes shape.
[SatNews – 04/01/2010]

Bolivia signs contract with China for a $300 million communications satellite.
[Reuters – 04/01/2010]

Integral Systems gets support services contract in Asia for $3+ million.
[SatNews – 04/01/2010]

DirecTV to have four 3D channels beginning in June – ESPN, N3D, a 3D pay-per-view channel, and one on-demand 3D channel.
[SatNews – 04/01/2010]

China Satellite Communications profit jumps 26.9% in 2009.
[TMCnet – 04/01/2010]

Harris comes to 2010 NAB as market leader in Mobile TV, with more than 40 sales of ATSC Mobile DTV systems confirmed to date.
[SatNews – 04/01/2010]

Sencore to introduce its first DVB-S2 modulator.
[SatNews – 04/01/2010]

Scientists funded by Astrium unveil 30 Kg nanosatellite engineered to clear more than 5,000 tons of debris in low-Earth orbit.
[Satellite Today – 04/01/2010]

Frost & Sullivan report finds inadequate satellite bandwidth impacts world VSAT market by increasing service revenues, while causing a dip in sales of equipment or hardware.
[PR Newswire – 04/01/2010]

SpaceX activates International Space Station (ISS) communications system for the Dragon spacecraft, which is to begin ISS resupply missions starting in 2011.
[Space Travel – 03/31/2010]

Shaw Direct contracts with Telesat to acquire capacity on a new satellite to be available in late 2012.
[CNN Money – 03/31/2010]

Comtech Systems gets $34.5 million contract for telecommunications transmission equipment from a North African government.
[CNN Money – 03/31/2010]

Boeing explores collaboration with Indian Space Research Organization in area of communications satellites.
[Space Daily – 03/31/2010]

Astrium is commissioned by European Space Agency to build Sentinel-2B optical satellite.
[SatNews – 03/31/2010]

DigitalGlobe announces its content library contains more than one billion square kilometers of earth imagery, 33% of which is less than one year old.
[SatNews – 03/31/2010]

India’s GSLV rocket, powered by home-made cryogenic engine for the first time, is slated to launch the GSAT-4 experimental satellite April 15th.
[Space Travel – 03/31/2010]

Russia increases security for train rollout of Soyuz rocket for launch to the International Space Station, in aftermath of suicide bomb attacks.
[Space Daily – 03/31/2010]

Documents filed by FCC indicate that Harbinger Capital Partners intends to use its recent acquisition of satellite communications company Skyterra to build out a 4G network, competing withy cellular carriers.
[Business Week – 03/30/2010]

India is developing winged reusable rocket for launching objects into space.
[Space Travel – 03/30/2010]

Singapore to have first locally-built satellite in space by middle of this year – a 120 kg micro-satellite called the X-Sat
[Space Daily – 03/30/2010]

Avanti wins government contract extension in Northern Ireland.
[Satellite Today – 03/30/2010]

CryoSat-2 satellite to be launched April 8 in program led by UK  to monitor changes in ice cover at the poles.
[Phys-Org – 03/30/2010]

NASA awards contracts to eight aerospace firms for Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition III spacecraft and related services.
[SatNews – 03/30/2010]

Norsat wins network service contract worth $1.7 million from military group based in Europe.
[SatNews – 03/30/2010]

Teal Group Corp. revises upward its Worldwide Mission Model of future space payloads, indicating there are 2,229 space payloads proposed for launch to Earth or Lunar orbits, or deep space trajectories, from 2010 – 2029.
SatNews – 03/30/2010]

SES WORLD SKIES hosts Defense Information Systems Network connection point at Manassas VA media port, enhancing U.S. government access to WORLD SKIES bandwidth and global connectivity.
[SatNews – 03/30/2010]

SatMAX, a leading provider of non-line of sight satellite communications  equipment signs letter of intent to grant exclusive domestic marketing rights to AvStar Aviation Group.
[CNN Money – 03/29/2010]

U.S. Air Force could transfer some Atlas and Delta rocket missions from Florida to California and assign U.S. military payloads to specific boosters closer to launch in effort in improve efficiencies in launch manifests.
[Space Flight Now – 03/29/2010]

Northrup Grumman stops some work on next generation of U.S. weather satellites as officials decide how to proceed under Obama administration’s decision to terminate and divide program among three government agencies.
[Spaceflight Now – 03/29/2010]

Russia Eyes bigger slice of international space market, planning to build a new space center.
[Space Daily – 03/29/2010]

AT&T and Verizon Wireless criticize FCC decision to require SkyTerra to seek FCC approval before leasing capacity to the two largest wireless providers.
[Business Week – 03/29/2010]

Globe Wireless enters agreement to supply and install two FleetBroadband satellite terminals per ship aboard approximately 350 Anlo Eastern Ship Management vessels.
[SatNews – 03/29/2010]

KVH Industries TracPhone and miniVSAT broadband systems to be installed on vessels of DSD Shipping of Norway.
[SatNews – 03/29/2010]

Arianespace Ariane 5 launch postponed several days to allow replacement of part in a launcher subsystem that caused an anomaly.
[SatNews – 03/28/2010]

Cape Canaveral new $500 million rocket launch tower unused, with Ares 1 rocket and entire Constellation program cancelled by the Obama administration.
[Space Travel – 03/28/2010]

Space shuttle Discovery to launch April 5 for 13 day mission in fourth-to-last shuttle launch.
[Discover Magazine – 03/28/2010]

U.S., Air Force responds to Iridium’s call to put hosted payloads, experiments, and sensors on the company’s next-generation satellites.
[Space Flight Now – 03/27/2010]

Air Force flight tests validate two-and-a-half year effort , successfully accessing the high-capacity Ka-band portion of the new WGS satellites from airborne 707 test bed.
[U.S. Air Force web site – 03/26/2010]

WBMSAT PS – Satellite Communications Consulting Services

Nice piece in today’s Star-Ledger, marking the 50th anniversary of the TIROS spacecraft, designed and built by RCA Astro-Electronics in East Windsor, NJ:

WALL — It didn’t get the respect of Sputnik or a hit song like Telstar, but 50 years ago today TIROS redefined the space race.

For the 78 days it functioned, this engineering marvel proved America could not only put a satellite into outer space but — in a giant leap beyond the Soviet satellites — take pictures once it got there.

"It was huge. Massive. It not only did radically change the study of meteorology, but it gave us the upper hand in the Cold War by showing the Russians we could spy on them from outer space," said historian Fred Carl. "How cool is that?"

Way cool. And impossible without New Jersey’s contribution, which may be why the state appears to be the only place celebrating TIROS’s big anniversary, according to NASA officials.
TIROS-satellite2.jpgPhoto by Carolyn Russo/NASMIn 1960, TIROS I became the world’s first successful imaging weather satellite. Nine more TIROS series spacecraft followed, and they revolutionized weather monitoring and prediction. This prototype of TIROS I and II was used for ground testing.
Granted, the festivities are not exactly on par with Columbus Day.

In Princeton, the party will start Saturday with a program featuring some of the scientists who worked at RCA Astro-Electronics in East Windsor, the birthplace of TIROS. In Wall Township, home of the giant dish that received the first images sent back from TIROS, local officials will gather April 11 to sign an application to put the site on the National Historic Register.

In coming weeks there will be scholarly discussions about the future of space exploration and a dinner dance.

Primarily, however, the TIROS anniversary is an opportunity for aging scientists and engineers to reflect back on when they were there for the dawn of space travel.

"It was a time of national need and TIROS is about how one group of people responded to that need," said George Martch, 73, a retired RCA engineer who is organizing the Princeton celebration. "It’s hard now, when satellite photos are everywhere, to imagine what it was like back then before the technology existed.

"We were making it up as we went along."

Only 40 years earlier, meteorologists were still sending up kites to get weather readings, a practice that routinely caused electrocution. But World War II brought huge technological advances. By the 1950s, the basics were there.

Cameras had already gone briefly into space, attached on the backs of ballistic missiles. The military had put test satellites into brief orbit and NASA, the civilian space agency, was in place, although in its infancy.

The problem was putting it all together.

"What we had was mostly experimental. We had to adapt cameras and find a way to store images, since they could only be sent back under certain conditions," said Martch, adding they also developed a power source, antennas and a way to stabilize the orbit. "You have to remember, there really was no aerospace before this."

It was a time of flux, as systems, structural and electrical engineers, scientists, physicists, and experts in thermal dynamics and propulsion were switched back and forth, depending on the progress of each component, RCA retirees recalled.

There was drama along the way. They learned electronics will fry when subjected to the wrong pressure in a vacuum chamber. There were heated theoretical battles and even romance among two RCA scientists who later married.

The result looked like a giant hatbox and weighed less than a defensive lineman. It was aluminum and stainless steel and covered with 9,200 solar cells.

Launched April 1, 1960, out of Cape Canerval Florida, it stayed in orbit by spinning like a top, traveled 18,000 mph and could circle the earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of about 450 miles.

It was formally known as the Television Infra-Red Observation Satellite and shot 22,962 photographs before a fatal power failure ended its mission.

TIROS was the first satellite to publicly take photos of the earth, although there was a secret project launched by the U.S. military a year earlier. However, only TIROS could send photos back to Earth in real time.

The "Eye in the Sky," as TIROS was also called, needed a way to phone home, and that is where Camp Evans in Monmouth County came in.

The former property of telegraph pioneer Marconi had been absorbed by RCA. It was later sold to the military and the Signal Corps built a radar laboratory there during World War II, said Carl, a former science teacher who is leading a campaign to preserve the site.

A giant receiver that was assembled at Camp Evans, where it still exists. Minutes after TIROS sent back its first picture, it was on a jet to Washington and hand-delivered to President Eisenhower. He sent copies to the Russians and the Chinese as a "gesture of goodwill," noting TIROS busily was taking photos of both countries.

Kicking a little Communist butt at the height of the Cold War was only a side benefit of TIROS. Its real accomplishment came nine days into orbit, when it sent back a photograph of a curious cloud formation with a hole in the middle.

Planes were dispatched to the photo location, in one of the "silent spots" in the South Atlantic where it was formerly impossible to take weather readings. The "hole" was a nascent tropical storm.

Hurricane tracking was born.

"Solar cells, tape recorders, transistor tubes, phone cameras. They all are directly related to TIROS," said Carl. "But with storm tracking, TIROS is responsible for saving millions of lives, yet few people have ever heard of it. Don’t you think it’s time that changed?

The back-up can be found at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

The tracking antenna on Marconi Road in Wall, N.J.? Still working…

Our friends at NOAA are marking the anniversary as well…

Fifty years ago today, the world’s first weather satellite lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and opened a new and exciting dimension in weather forecasting. Top leaders from NOAA and NASA hailed the milestone as an example of their agencies’ strong partnership and commitment to flying the best satellites today and beyond.

The first image from the satellite, known as TIROS-1 (Television Infrared Observation Satellite), was a fuzzy picture of thick bands and clusters of clouds over the United States. An image captured a few days later revealed a typhoon about a 1,000 miles east of Australia. TIROS-1, a polar-orbiting satellite, weighed 270 pounds and carried two cameras and two video recorders. Though the satellite only lasted 78 days, its impact is still visible today.

“This satellite forever changed weather forecasting,” said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “Since TIROS-1, meteorologists have far greater information about severe weather and can issue more accurate forecasts and warnings that save lives and protect property.”

"TIROS-1 started the satellite observations and interagency collaborations that produced vast improvements in weather forecasts," said NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr. "It also laid the foundation for our current global view of Earth that underlies all of climate research and the field of Earth system science."

Throughout the 1960s, each TIROS spacecraft carried increasingly advanced instruments and technology. By 1965, meteorologists combined 450 TIROS images into the first global view of the world’s weather.

“This reflects the Air Force’s strong commitment to providing superior protected satellite communications capabilities for the war fighter.” That’s what Steve Tatum wrote in response to the news of the USAF’s pending request for $6.5 billion to get the Advanced EHF program into space. The first one launched in September:

The Air Force said it will request four years of funds totaling $6.5 billion for a Lockheed Martin Corp. military communications program that plans to launch its first satellite in September after six years of delays.

The funding request for fiscal years 2012-2015 will follow $598 million sought for fiscal 2011, according to an e-mail from Gary Payton, the Air Force’s top civilian for space programs. The six-satellite program is budgeted at a total of $9.9 billion.

The request, part of the Pentagon’s current five-year budget plan, reflects the Air Force moving forward with a program endorsed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates now that delays and technical problems have been worked out.

Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin and its top subcontractor, Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp., have been awarded contracts to build the first three satellites. They may get contracts for a fourth that the Air Force budgeted for next year and two more planned by 2014. The Air Force budget figures show that the service may buy a seventh satellite starting in fiscal 2015.

The Advanced EHF program calls for six satellites, capable of withstanding shocks from a nuclear attack, to allow secure communications between top commanders including the president. It also would provide transmission of tactical communications such as real-time video, battlefield maps and targeting data.

Good day at the office for Lockheed Martin (and subcontractor Northrup Grumman). How "advanced" is this system? Dude.

The B-2 is being upgraded, using fiber connections — inside the aircraft.  A single AEHF spacecraft will provide more capacity than the entire Milstar system currently on-orbit — combined.

Watch this…

The deal to buy Satmex is off. What seemed like a brilliant acquisition by all accounts, will not go through.

EchoStar Corp. and MVS Comunicaciones SA ended their agreement to buy Satelites Mexicanos SA for $267 million after the Mexican satellite operator’s bondholders objected to the deal.

Satmex, as the company is known, failed to get approval from holders of a majority of bonds within the 17 days allotted under the agreement, EchoStar said Tuesday in a U.S. regulatory filing.

El Economista suggests they’re holding out for a minimum of $500 million. Not sure it’s such a good idea to wait. If Satmex-5 fails, how much would the company be worth then? I say cash out now while you still can.

The Mexican government owns 20% of the company, so it would be interested to get their take on this.

The FCC National Broadband Plan‘s release probably has nothing to do with the Satellite 2010 trade show at the Gaylord National Harbor Resort.

Sure, satcom is referenced in the plan, especially chapter 4.

More bandwidth. Lower price per MHz. Yeah, right.