The Northrop Grumman-built SharkSat payload collected and transmitted performance and telemetry data back to mission controllers while orbiting the Earth during a two-week demonstration aboard the company's Cygnus spacecraft in January. “SharkSat's success directly reflects the speed and agility that our team put forth to deliver mission success,“ said Candace Givens, vice president of payload and ground systems division at Northrop.
Read More »Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch: Industry Supports Gov't Missions Through Investments in Satcom Capabilities
Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch of Inmarsat Government wrote in a SatMagazine article that the commercial satellite communications industry supports government customers' missions and understand their requirements by investing in programs and capabilities that seek to improve the mobility, redundancy, flexibility, throughput, protection and resilience of satcom systems.
Read More »Northrop to Build Broadband Satellites to Support US, Int’l Polar Satcom Operations
Space Norway, a government-owned Norwegian space firm, has selected Northrop Grumman to design, develop, integrate and test two broadband satellites intended to handle communications across the north polar region.
Read More »Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch: Inmarsat Government Supports Gov't Airborne, Maritime Ops via Satcom
Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, senior vice president for government strategy and policy at Inmarsat Government, told the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority in a video interview posted Friday how the company supports government operations through its satellite communications platforms. She said satellites placed approximately 35K kilometers above the equator and ground stations that back those …
Read More »SpaceX Launches Orbital ATK-Built GovSat Satellite Aboard Pre-Flown Rocket
A communications satellite that Orbital ATK built for GovSat ““ a public-private joint venture of SES and the government of Luxembourg ““ took off Wednesday at 4:25 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. GovSat-1 will be placed at 21.5 degrees East …
Read More »Inmarsat's Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch: Ka-Band Satcom Tech Essential for Airborne ISR Missions
Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, senior vice president of government strategy and policy for Inmarsat Government, has said she believes the adoption of Ka-band satellite communications technology can help the military address interoperability requirements for airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. Cowen-Hirsch wrote in a two-part blog post published Thursday that Ka-band's capacity to cover …
Read More »Ken Lee: Orbital ATK to Build 11th Comms Satellite for Intelsat
Intelsat has awarded Orbital ATK (NYSE: OA) a contract to build a communications satellite based on the latter company’s GEOStar-2 platform. Orbital ATK said Monday it will design, construct and test Intelsat’s future Galaxy 30 satellite at a Dulles, Virginia-based manufacturing facility. “Galaxy 30 will be the 11th satellite Orbital ATK …
Read More »Orbital ATK Brings Comms Satellite to French Guiana Ahead of January Launch
Orbital ATK has transported a hybrid electric propulsion communications satellite built for Al Yah Satellite Communications to a launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, ahead of the system’s intended liftoff in January 2018. Orbital ATK said Thursday it built the GEOStar-3 satellite designated Al Yah 3 to help expand Yahsat’s commercial Ka-band …
Read More »Boeing-ViaSat Team to Build 2 Ka-Band Satellites for the Americas, EMEA
ViaSat has partnered with Boeing to build, integrate and test a pair of Ka-band satellites designed to offer network communications services across the Americas region and in Europe, Middle East and Africa. ViaSat said Monday it reached a critical design review milestone for the ViaSat-3 satellite technology that seeks to deliver a network capacity of …
Read More »Inmarsat's Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch: Govt, Troops Should Adopt Commercial Satcom That “Moves“ With Them
Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, senior vice president for government strategy and policy at Inmarsat, has said government personnel and warfighters should adopt a satellite communications platform that “moves“ with them to facilitate voice, video and data sharing and carry out missions amid disasters and global conflicts. Hirsch told the Mobile Satellite Users …
Read More »Kymeta to Develop Ka-Band CubeSat Antennas for NASA
Kymeta‘s government solutions division has received a pair of NASA grants to produce Ka-band antennas for integration with CubeSats or other satellites designed to operate in low-Earth orbit. The company said Monday it aims to develop space-based antennas under NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program as part of efforts to help address for …
Read More »Australian Air Force Uses Inmarsat’s Global Xpress Satcom Service Aboard C-130J Aircraft
Australia’s air force has begun to use Inmarsat‘s satellite communications service on a C-130J Hercules transport aircraft as part of an effort to create new ways for air platforms to support deployed forces. Inmarsat said Friday the air force is using the Global Xpress service through Honeywell‘s JetWaveTM Ka-band satcom platform …
Read More »SSL to Develop Ultra High Density Satellite for Hughes Network Systems
Hughes Network Systems has selected Space Systems Loral to develop the former’s next-generation ultra high density satellite designed to expand the Hughes Ka-band capacity across the Americas region. The new Jupiter-powered EchoStar XXIV UHDS will help aid the business expansion of Hughes in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil and other …
Read More »Inmarsat Demos Global Xpress Satcom Service Aboard Gulfstream IV Aircraft
Inmarsat has completed a flight test to demonstrate the capability of its Global Xpress satellite network to deliver high-speed communications coverage to users aboard a Gulfstream IV aircraft. Global Xpress worked to deliver data, voice, internet access, video teleconferencing, application streaming and file transfer support services to the aircraft through …
Read More »Inmarsat's Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch: Ka-band Satcom Key to Military's Manned, Unmanned Airborne Missions
Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, senior vice president for government strategy and policy at Inmarsat, has said she believes Ka-band satellite communications can help military and government agencies support manned and unmanned aerial missions amid the evolving global security environment. Cowen-Hirsch wrote in an op-ed piece published in MilSatMagazine that Ka-band satellite constellations work to …
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