23 April 2000

Satcoms

AT&T's HITS Extends Capacity
AT&T Broadband has extended and expanded its use of PanAmSat's Galaxy satellite fleet for the Headend in the Sky (HITS) service, which delivers more than 140 digital television channels to cable systems throughout the United States.

AT&T Broadband has relocated HITS from the Galaxy VII satellite to the new Galaxy XI spacecraft, which will serve as the temporary home for HITS until the upcoming deployment of the high-power Galaxy IVR satellite. This new long-term service agreement expands PanAmSat's service for HITS by employing higher-bandwidth 36 MHz transponders on the new spacecraft.

AT&T's Headend in the Sky (HITS), founded in 1994, delivers digitally-compressed cable television programming signals to cable operators around the United States, serving more than 1,600 headends representing 144 cable MSOs. HITS currently compresses more than 140 digital services on 12 transponders. Based in Littleton, Colorado, HITS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of AT&T Broadband.

Chello Uses Loral Cyberstar for Australian Service
Chello, Europe s first and leading broadband and Internet services company, is using CyberStar s satellite-based Internet Protocol (IP) network to provide high-speed Internet access and content to a market of more than 300,000 pay-TV subscribers across Australia.

Amsterdam-based chello is providing this new service to meet the needs of Australian Internet users who live or work outside of major metropolitan areas and do not otherwise have access to high-speed Internet access. The company now offers consumer and home office users a combination of high-speed, broadband interactive services and global and local content at 256 kb/s per second via its Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS).

Over the next three years, chello and CyberStar plan to expand their relationship by providing similar high-quality multimedia Internet services to other parts of the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and Europe. Chello already uses CyberStar s high-bandwidth WorldCast Internet access services, which enables the European company to sell Internet services to more than 25,000 cable subscribers in Vienna, Austria.

In addition, CyberStar provides high-performance Internet backbone access and co-location services for chello's servers on the US west coast. These servers, which provide traditional Internet access, content aggregation, caching, and e-mail services, are connected with CyberStar s own California facilities via a teleport and uplinked onward to Australia, allowing chello to deliver access to US Internet content and infrastructure.

DigitalXpress Closes
DigitalXpress, a provider of satellite communications services, is ceasing operations to allow its shareholders to focus on initiatives that are better suited to their core competencies. DigitalXpress is transferring the majority of its customer networks to GlobeCast.

DigitalXpress and GlobeCast reached an agreement earlier this year to install new satellite downlink equipment and other required transmission gear at DigitalXpress customer sites. The companies plan to broadcast in tandem until installations are complete.

DigitalXpress is owned by Boeing Commercial Information and Communication and Conus Communications. GlobeCast is the broadcast services unit of France Telecom and the world's largest provider of complete end-to-end transmission and production services for video, audio, business television, IP multicasting and Internet backbone.

EMS SpaceMux for Anik F2
EMS Technologies Inc, through its Space and Technology Group in Montreal, has announced a US$ 6 million contract with the Canadian Space Agency to provide the research and development for a demonstration digital mesh connectivity system on Telesat's Anik F2 satellite.

Telesat Canada and Hughes Space & Communications have granted EMS an Authorisation to Proceed worth an additional US$ 9 million for the flight unit.

EMS will provide Anik F2's On-Board Digital Signal Processor (SpaceMux). When deployed, the SpaceMux will enable individual users to communicate with each other at 2 Mb/s data rates without having to pass through a gateway. Peer-to-peer connections will enable a new range of Internet applications, including IP telephony and desktop video using web cameras.

This system will enable new Internet broadband applications to be deployed over large geographic areas for both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint communications. This system will use DVB-RCS (Digital Video Broadcast--Return Channel via Satellite) user terminals that are available from several suppliers, including EMS.

DVB-RCS is an international standard for multimedia satellite networks, which defines "Return Channel via Satellite" using low- cost user terminals capable of return data rates of up to 2.048 Mb/s. The forward-link data transmission rate is up to 40 Mb/s.

EMS will also deliver the DVB-RCS ground equipment required to test the end-to-end performance of the Anik F2 mesh-connectivity system.

Hughes Supplies Largest VSAT Network To India
Hughes Network Systems (HNS) has been awarded a contract to supply the world's largest VSAT network with 50,000 terminals to be installed in more than 1,000 Indian cities and towns. HNS values the contract at about US$ 80 million.

The terminals will bypass India's terrestrial phone network in order to enable Internet access. HNS will supply the VSATs over an 18 month period, beginning later this year when its two-way DirecPC service becomes available.

HNS will supply them to S Kumars.com, which will set up kiosks where Indians can access the Internet. It is estimated that this community-kiosk network will grow to 25 million subscribers within the next year.

The network is the largest single VSAT network undertaken so far and will introduce some of the most advanced broadband applications into a retail environment. HNS will implement this network along with its Indian subsidiary Hughes Escorts Communications Limited (HECL.)

Hughes to Supply Anik F2
Hughes Space and Communications Company (HSC) has received its tenth order for its high-power Hughes 702 model spacecraft. Anik F2 will be the 11th satellite to be built by Hughes for Telesat Canada.

Anik F2 will offer fixed satellite services, including Internet access and multimedia services, across North America using 108 active transponders, 52 of them in Ka-band. It has inbound and outbound multibeam coverage of North America, and an onboard digital processor linking small terminals in Eastern and Western Canada via two spot beams. It will be launched in late 2002. Anik F1, another 702 model satellite, is scheduled for launch this summer.

Anik F2 will operate from Telesat's orbital slot of 111.1° W. In addition to Ka-band, Anik F2 will carry 24 C-band transponders and 32 Ku-band transponders and deliver 14 kW of end-of-life payload power. To generate such high power, the two solar wings employ high-efficiency, triple-junction gallium arsenide solar cells. Anik F2 also carries Hughes' flight-proven xenon ion propulsion system (XIPS) for all on-orbit manoeuvring. Construction will occur in the HSC factory near Los Angeles International Airport.

Hughes introduced the 702 model in 1995, in response to customer requests for a high-power, high-capacity, multiple-payload satellite that could be delivered in minimum time and be launched on a variety of vehicles.

OlympuSAT Selects Loral Skynet's Telstar 7
OlympuSAT Inc, an affiliate of Ocean Communications, has selected of Loral Skynet's Telstar 7 satellite for the future distribution of its OlympuSAT I digital programming package.

OlympuSAT is an independent and solution-oriented supplier of digital entertainment services to both cable operators and direct broadcast satellite providers in the United States. OlympuSAT will bundle and digitally transmit "suites" of growing, independent programming services. OlympuSAT will also supplement its programming partners' marketing and affiliate relations' efforts to help maximise their distribution. OlympuSAT I will be available to cable operators beginning May 1.

OlympuSAT will utilise C band capacity on Telstar 7, which is located at 129° W and provides coverage of the Continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, as well as parts of Canada and Latin America. This satellite provides full digital capacity serving a robust cable neighbourhood, as well as hosting to data applications, Internet, direct-to-home and other value-added services.

OlympuSAT is an affiliate of Ocean Communications, a clearinghouse for cable networks seeking part-time or full-time distribution on analogue cable or broadcast.

Triumph Uses Tandberg TV for Backhauls
Triumph Communications Inc, an integration, design and engineering company for the broadcast industry, has selected Tandberg Television, a leading supplier of open digital solutions for the management and transmission of digital TV signals, as its vendor of choice to provide equipment for the expansion of its backhaul capabilities.

The DVB-compliant control system, valued in excess of US$ 2.5 million and to be located at the Triumph headquarters and video service centre in New York City, will be put in place on its network primarily for US domestic use and some world-wide implementation.

Triumph will utilise the system on its full-time and occasional fibre networks as well as for some of its satellite services.

Triumph Communications is one of the first integration companies to provide compressed satellite channels to the cable industry. In addition to distributing video services to broadcasters and cable networks, the company has a number of corporate clients.

Earth Observation

Constellation for Spot Image
Spot Image is to launch a constellation of small remote-sensing satellites as its follow-on system after the Spot 5 satellite is launched next year.

The constellation of satellites could be launched from 2002 and would fulfil the company's needs through 2008-2010. Spot Image is also investigating the upgrade of its network of ground stations.

Terra Satellite Begins Operation
Following its launch last December, NASA's Earth Observing System Satellite, Terra, has completed on-orbit checkout and verification and has commenced operation.

Terra is the first satellite to monitor daily -- and on a global scale -- how the Earth's atmosphere, lands, oceans, solar radiation and life influence each other. Terra's wide array of measurements will give a comprehensive evaluation of the Earth as a system and will establish a new basis for long-term monitoring of the Earth's climate changes.

Science

Gamma Ray Observatory Delayed
The launch of the European Space Agency's Integral gamma ray observatory has been postponed for six months following detailed status review.

Integral will now be launched on April 22 2002 on a Russian Proton rocket.

The delay is blamed on slippages in the construction of the scientific instruments to be flown on the probe.

Manned Space

Mir Leak Found and Plugged
Attempts by MirCorp's cosmonauts to locate and repair a slow leak in the Mir space station appear to have been successful with the internal pressure now stabilising after a sealing plug was installed on the Spektr module's hatch.

The sealing plug was used to replace a pressure gauge on the Spektr hatch door after cosmonauts detected the sound of escaping air.

The two cosmonauts onboard Mir, Sergei Zalyotin and Alexander Kalery, have been performing a step-by-step search for the small leak since arriving on Mir earlier this month - isolating the station section by section in order to pinpoint its location. They had been methodically moving through the station, disconnecting cables running through Mir so that hatches could be shut to isolate sections of the station. During this process they heard what may have been the sound of escaping air from a pressure gauge on the Spektr module's hatch. The hatch separates Mir's core module from Spektr and is located in a small spherical compartment called PkhO (transfer compartment) which is a connecting module between the core, four additional modules (one of which is Spektr) and a Soyuz spacecraft. Spektr has been unpressurised since 1997, when an unmanned Progress cargo re-supply spacecraft ran into the module during a docking manoeuvre.

Mir's previous crew first detected the leak 1999, but were not able to locate the leak before leaving the station last August.

Whilst MirCorp is understandably enthusiastic that the main problem with Mir has now been beaten, it is not yet clear whether this was the only leak on the space station.

Launch Vehicles

Air Launch Schedules First Flight in 2003
Russian cargo airline Polyot, with a number of Russian and Ukrainian space companies, have formed Air Launch Corp, which intends to offer launch services using an air launched, two stage rocket from 2003.

The idea is to use a modified version of the huge An-124-AL Ruslan cargo plane to lift the launcher to 11 km altitude before igniting the rocket's first stage engines, enabling payloads of up to 3.5 tonnes to be lofted.

The two stage rocket will have a launch mass of 100 tonnes, a diameter of 3 m and a length of 31.5 m. The vehicle will use lox and kerosene as oxidant and propellant. It will fly from Samara Airfield.

Air Launch are predicting a launch capacity of five to eight launches a week using six aircraft. Launch charges would be in the range US$ 5000 to 6000 per kg.

California Chooses San Bernadino for VentureStar Launch Site Offer
The Harper Dry Lake area of San Bernardino County has been chosen as California's primary launch site in the competition for the VentureStar next-generation spacecraft.

Harper Dry Lake's sparsely populated location and 1,000 m altitude above sea level were key considerations in its selection. Moreover, California's other sites under consideration - Lancaster, Merced, and Vandenberg Air Force Base - will carry critical support mechanisms in the upcoming national competition that involves up to 15 other states.

Vandenberg and its local partners, has the advanced communications systems and technical expertise critical for commercial launches. The other sites are familiar with critical aspects of the project including transportation, infrastructure and vehicle testing that can support the San Bernardino team.

A vital factor in Harper's favour was a launch path away from major population centres that will provide FAA licensing opportunities. VentureStar is a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle, giving California the opportunity to launch over land on an easterly trajectory to meet the demands of the growing commercial space market.

Japanese Satellites to Fly on Ariane
JSAT has selected Arianespace to orbit its JCSAT-8 communications satellite in late 2001. NASDA has chosen Arianespace to launch its LDREX experimental deployable antenna in the coming months.

JCSAT-8 is being manufactured by Hughes Space & Communications and is based on an HS 601 bus. Its launch is planned for the end of 2001 on an Ariane 4 or an Ariane 5 from Kourou, French Guiana, South America.

LDREX is a half-scale mock-up of a deployable antenna for the future ETS-8 technological satellite. A camera will be installed on LDREX to record the antenna's deployment after its release from Ariane 5.

More Delays for H-2A
Following the failure of the Japanese H-2 launcher last November, the maiden flight of the NASDA's H-2A has now slipped to April 2001 to give NASDA more time to analyse the failure.

The first launch of H-2A from the Tanegashima Space Centre, carrying ESA's Artemis/DASH spacecraft and NASDA's Mission Demonstration Test Satellite-1 (MDS-1) aboard, was originally scheduled for February 2000 and then rescheduled for February 2001. The earliest possible launch date is now April 2001, with further delays possible.

Sea Launch Failure Update
Members of the Sea Launch Failure Review Oversight Board met last week to hear briefings from the independent teams that are investigating the launch failure of March 12.

The US-only session was limited to the independent investigations conducted by Boeing personnel. While the session focused on Mission 3 (launch of the ICO F-1 satellite), there was also a comparative review of the previous two missions. The Boeing participants have been carefully reviewing large amounts of telemetry data as well as system data presented by representatives of Sea Launch partners, Yuzhnoye and Energia. The Board is also exploring the validation of other critical systems, such as the general processes and procedures used by the Boeing team in its participation in Sea Launch operations.

The Russian and Ukrainian partners formed a joint commission and completed their review of the launch data on April 11. By April 19, all of the members of this commission, including the directors of the Russian Space Agency, the Ukrainian National Space Agency, and the presidents of Energia, Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash had signed the final report. An executive summary of this document is being delivered to Sea Launch this week. Next week, the full report will be presented to the Failure Review Oversight Board in Moscow.

Lift-off of the third flight of Sea Launch, carrying the ICO F-1 communications satellite, occurred on schedule at 6:49 a.m. PST, March 12, from the equatorial launch site at 154° West longitude. An anomaly occurred during the second stage operation, prior to reaching orbital velocity. The ICO spacecraft did not reach orbit. Data review indicates the root cause of the failure is related to a ground support equipment software error.

Sea Launch is working toward a return to flight in the Summer of 2000.

Thruster Problems Delay Launches
Arianspace is having to reschedule several launches due over the next few months because of potential problems with small station keeping and attitude control thrusters on the satellites to be launched.

Anomalies have been detected in a batch of the 10 Newton thrusters, making spacecraft manufacturers and operators delay the launches of some satellites with thrusters from the batch. The first launch affected is the next Arianespace launch which was to have carried two spacecraft on May 23. One of the satellites, Astra 2A, uses the affected thrusters and has been withdrawn from the launch as a precaution; it will not now be available for launch before July.

Other satellites due to be launched on Ariane rockets also use the same thrusters, forcing Arianespace to rework its launch manifest.

ESA's Cluster II satellites also use the same thrusters. Dornier Satellitensysteme and ESA have decided to delay the shipment of the satellites to Baikonur. Lockheed Martin is also facing delays with the inaugural launch of its Atlas 3A rocket which has been delayed for a month because of worries about the thrusters on its Eutelsat W4 payload.

Launches

SESAT

Launched: 17 April 2000
Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan
Launcher: Proton/Block DM
Orbit: GEO 36° E
International Number: 2000-019A
Name: SESAT (Siberia Europe Satellite)
Owner: Eutelsat
Contractor: NPO-PM (payload: Alcatel Space)

SESAT is a communications satellite intended to provide coverage across Europe, Asia and Africa. It has two beams: a stretched Widebeam over Europe, western Siberia, North Africa and the Middle East, and a steerable Spotbeam over India.

Up to six of the 18 Ku band 72 MHz transponders on the satellite can be switched one by one into the Steerable Beam. Communications can be established between the Widebeam and the Steerable Beam and also within the Steerable Beam in order to offer users a high degree of operational flexibility.

Galaxy IVR

Launched: 19 April 2000
Site: CSG Kourou, French Guiana
Launcher: Ariane 42L
Orbit: GEO 99° W
International Number: 2000-020A
Name: Galaxy IVR
Owner: PanAmSat
Contractor: Hughes Space and Communications

The Galaxy IVR communications satellite is an HS 601 HP model spacecraft built by the Hughes Space and Communications Co. It carries a payload consisting of 24 C band and 24 Ku band transponders. The high-power spacecraft will serve as the primary distribution platform for high-profile video, Internet and telecommunications customers that include National Public Radio, Encore, Hughes Network Systems, NHK and Televisa. Galaxy IVR will also serve as the broadband pipe for the delivery of AOL Plus direct to consumers' homes via Hughes Network Systems' DirecPC satellite Internet service. It will also serve as the new platform for PanAmSat's Galaxy 3DTM service, a bundled domestic digital delivery package offering television broadcasters, programmers and business network managers a one-stop shopping resource for end-to-end digital video, audio and data transmission services among more than a dozen North American cities.

People

New Board Member at L-3 Communications
L-3 Communications has appointed Arthur L. Simon to its board of directors.

Mr. Simon is also a current member of the Board of Directors of Loral Space and Communications Ltd and chairs the Audit Committee and Compensation Committee.

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