11 November 2001

Satcoms

Astrium Selects EMS Technologies to Supply Eutelsat W3A Antennas
EMS Technologies Inc has received a contract from Astrium of Toulouse, France, to design and manufacture three antennas and a tower support structure for the Eutelsat W3A program. These antennas will be deck mounted on the "top floor" of the satellite, and comprise three separate antennas that support the spacecraft's Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) - a Gregorian antenna and two antennas with Dual Gridded Reflectors (DGR's).

The Gregorian antenna has a 0.8m by 1.1m main reflector and a single feed chain that provides Ku-band receive, as well as Ka-band receive and transmit capabilities over Europe. The DGR antennas all work at Ku-band, providing transmit coverage of Europe from two of the reflectors, as well as transmit and receive coverage of Africa from the other two reflectors.

Digital Latin America Chooses PAS-9
PanAmSat Corporation has announced a new sales agreement with Digital Latin America (DLA) to broadcast premium entertainment programming packages to Multiple System Operators (MSOs) throughout Latin America. The value of the multi-transponder agreement was not disclosed.

DLA, the only integrated digital platform and content provider for cable operators in Latin America, is using PanAmSat's PAS-9 Atlantic Ocean Region satellite, Latin America's premier satellite video neighbourhood, to offer an advanced digital programming and services package to thousands of headends and millions of pay-TV households.

The services DLA delivers over the PAS-9 satellite include a complete package of transported premium and pay-per-view programming; digital music channels in a wide variety of genres; an interactive program guide, and a full line of Internet-based, high-speed interactive and enhanced television services including e-mail, webcast, channel hyperlinking and Internet through the TV set.

GlobeCast Integrates Thales MPEG-2 Satellite Solutions
Thales Broadcast and Multimedia (formerly Thomcast Communications has announces that GlobeCast, the largest provider of satellite transmission and production services in North and Latin America, has selected Thales Opal MPEG to IP Gateways and Amethyst Redundant Smart Switches. These Thales broadband content delivery solutions will be used for several unique satellite applications in North and South America, including business television services and delivery of IP via DVB.

Thales Broadcast and Multimedia will also provide installation and integration services to GlobeCast, one of America's most advanced providers for enterprise television and Internet content delivery via satellite. The new Thales equipment will be integrated into existing Helius receive equipment.

The Thales Opal IP to MPEG-2 Gateway broadcasts Internet or data files within MPEG-2 transport streams.

HNS Europe Provides LEOXX With DirecWay Broadband Services
Hughes Network Systems Europe (HNSE) is providing LEOXX GmbH of Cologne, Germany, with DirecWay broadband Internet access services.

LEOXX is targeting local ISPs and companies located in regions with a weak terrestrial infrastructure, offering quick installation and high-quality broadband connectivity. The DirecWay service operates from the HNS Europe hub in Griesheim, Germany over the Eutelsat W1 satellite located at 10° E. LEOXX has successfully launched service in Germany with several initial sites and plans to expand in the Swiss and UK markets shortly, and eventually throughout Europe.

LEOXX is offering service to build local networks for different numbers of users and at different speeds. Typical throughputs that can be supported range from 400 kb/s to 2 Mb/s on the downlink and from 64 kb/s to 256 kb/s on the uplink.

Loral Cyberstar Extends Agreement On European And Asian Distribution With USA Today
Loral CyberStar has announced that USA Today has extended its contract to use CyberStar's Digital Link service to deliver daily editions of its newspaper to printing plants in London, Frankfurt, Brussels, Milan and Hong Kong through the use of VSATs located at each site in the network.

According to the terms of the extension, CyberStar will continue to provide an asymmetrical, two-way satellite link for IP multicast and unicast data and voice services between CyberStar's US hub in Virginia and the European and Asian remote sites. CyberStar's solution offers USA Today the convenience of a one-vendor solution for installation, equipment maintenance, space segment and network management services for its entire global network.

CyberStar's Digital Link is a satellite network service that uses VSATs to send and receive digital signals for voice, data, video, e-mail and fax transmissions. These practical and economical services connect a virtually unlimited number of sites to operation centres and offers barrier-free access, quick installation, flexible pricing, customised bandwidth, and designed circuit availability of 99.5% or greater. Providing clear-channel connections at data rates up to 45 Mb/s, any signal or protocol can travel on Digital Link service and its high transmission rates permits multiple users to exchange large, critical files simultaneously through their local area network (LAN) without delays or congestion.

Digital Link offers:

• Secure, reliable transmission of critical applications and information
• Wide-area network back up systems
• Distribution of large data files
• Full LAN support of hundreds of corporate users at each location
• Bandwidth-on-demand capability for high-traffic periods
• Scaleable bandwidth from 256 kb/s to 45 Mb/s
• Two way, point-to-point broadband
• Polling, database updates and videoconferencing

Putting Real-Time Ground and In-Flight Information into the Cockpit
Flight Explorer, a leading provider of Internet-based real-time flight tracking information, and Satellink Technologies Inc, a provider of broadcast satellite information delivery systems, have announced an agreement to offer Flight Explorer as part of the Satellite Technologies Merlin System. The agreement provides, for the first time, a fully functional aircraft situation display for subscribers in the cockpit.

The new service, called "FE InFlight," will provide live flight tracking and decision tools to pilots in the cockpit to enhance situational awareness during ground and in-flight operations. Specifically, pilots will be able to view, in real-time, air traffic and weather along their routes and at their destinations to help them make decisions about the route and timing of their flights. Merlin uses satellite broadcast technology to provide a suite of flight information, weather data and other capabilities directly to pilots in the cockpit.

The service will be available in the first quarter of 2002

Flight Explorer is the maker of Flight Explorer Professional, a powerful and reliable aircraft situation display. With only a personal computer and Internet access, anyone - from a major airline dispatcher, fleet operations or airport manager, even an awaiting limousine company - can use Flight Explorer Professional to track, in real time, aircraft anywhere over the US (including Alaska and Hawaii), Canada, the UK and portions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Flight Explorer Professional information is updated every 10 seconds.

Sterling Jewelers Signs Two-Year Deal With HNS
Hughes Network Systems (HNS) has won a two-year contract to supply Sterling Jewelers with the DirecWay satellite network service, connecting more than 1,000 retail jewellery locations across the USA.

Based in Akron, Ohio, Sterling Jewelers is the USA's second largest jewellery retailer. Sterling is owned by the UK-based Signet Group, the world's largest retail jeweller.

According to the terms of the two-year deal, HNS will continue to provide Sterling with satellite communications services enabling credit authorisation, customer relationship modeling and internal communications. Sterling first contracted with HNS in 1994.

Telia to Discontinue Satellite Services
Telia AB's satellite services division and its operations at the Teleport earth station in Tanum, on the west coast of Sweden, will be discontinued during 2002. The division's satellite earth station in Agesta, outside Stockholm, is for sale. The costs for discontinuing these operations are covered by a SEK 800 million provision for losses that Telia reported in the third quarter this year.

The decision, which directly affects 21 employees in Tanum and three employees in division management in Farsta, is due to declining demand for satellite-based services for international telephony.

Since satellite operations in Agesta, located south of Stockholm, have other technical and commercial possibilities, Telia intends to sell the business, if possible, including the facilities and employees.

The Tanum satellite earth station will be closed down gradually during 2002 so that existing customers will be able to find other satellite service providers before Tanum is closed.

No employees will be given immediate notice - all are being offered the opportunity to participate in Telia's transition program and obtain personal assistance, for example, in locating new jobs or receiving further education.

The Tanum earth station, built in 1970-71, has been of major significance for international telecom traffic between Sweden and the rest of the Nordic region. In the 1990s, the market for satellite-based international telephony services started to decline as fibre-based networks were expanded globally. Competition from optical fibre has led to price pressure and an increasingly smaller workload, even in Tanum.

ViaSat Receives Connexion by Boeing Order for Rx/Tx Subsystems
ViaSat Inc has received an order from Boeing for the development and initial production quantities of the receive and transmit subsystem for the Connexion by Boeing broadband Internet and data communication service.

ViaSat has conducted laboratory demonstrations of pre-production prototype airborne and ground receiver and transmitter subsystems. The communications links transmitted and received at data rates of 5 Mb/s. For these demonstrations, the ViaSat subsystems simultaneously carried multiple IP video streams, a videoconference link, large file transfers and e-mail traffic.

The Connexion by Boeing service provides a real-time, two-way, data and television service, fulfilling the modern business traveller's need to stay connected to the office, Web, news and financial information. Airline operators also benefit from in-flight access to aircraft and crew data.

ViaSat Stops Astrolink Work
ViaSat Inc has received notification from Astrolink International LLC of the termination for convenience of two ViaSat ground segment contracts. These two contracts relate to the development and production of terminals and service provider gateways for the Astrolink satellite system. This termination requires Astrolink to pay ViaSat a termination amount that is based on a predetermined formula provided by the contracts.

In addition, Telespazio SpA has notified ViaSat to suspend work for up to 90 days on a contract for the production of dedicated gateways for the Astrolink system. Telespazio awarded this contract to ViaSat's Satellite Ground Systems Division in April 1999.

The termination of these contracts is a consequence of Lockheed Martin, one of Astrolink's investors, announcing last week that it would not invest further in the Astrolink program. Development and initial infrastructure deployment for the broadband, Ka band project was to have continued through launch of the Astrolink satellites in the first half of 2003, at which time subscriber terminal shipments were planned to commence.

Astrolink contracts, in total, have accounted for approximately 10% to 15% of ViaSat revenues in recent periods and were not expected to increase materially for the next 18 months.

ViaSat is evaluating its Astrolink operations and plans to manage its cost structure in a manner consistent with the change in Astrolink's status through a combination of redeploying key personnel to other projects and staff reductions. ViaSat plans to re-deploy personnel to maximize its prospects on other satellite broadband and emerging defence communications opportunities.

Science

NASA Selects 10 Investigations for 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
NASA has announced the selection of 10 scientific investigations as part of the 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission. The 2005 MRO will carry six primary instruments that will greatly enhance the search for evidence of water, take images of objects about the size of a beach ball, and search for future landing sites on the Martian surface.

The investigations selected include two Principal Investigator (PI) Instrument Investigations and eight Facility Team Leader or Member Investigations.

The two PI instruments selected are:

• HiRISE, an ultra-high resolution, multi-color, stereo imaging system. Principal Investigator is Dr Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, in partnership with Ball Aerospace Corp, at a total developmental cost of US$ 31 million. The HiRISE instrument will provide colour stereo images of the Martian surface at six times higher resolution than any existing images, and is expected to improve understanding of surface processes related to water and to help identify future landing sites.
• CRISM, a hyperspectral imaging spectrometer for mineralogical mapping. Principal Investigator is Dr Scott Murchie of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, at a total cost of US$ 17.6 million. The CRISM instrument will provide extremely high resolution hyperspectral images of areas on Mars in wavelengths from 0.4 to 4.0 micrometers (visible to shortwave infrared) for identifying key mineralogical indicators of water and hydrothermal systems at spatial scales smaller than a football field. Such data will be vital for targeting future landed missions.

The other selected investigations involve the analysis of data from mission-provided facility instruments and spacecraft engineering systems:

• shallow-subsurface sounding radar (SHARAD)
• gravity measurements achieved with the MRO spacecraft
• accelerometer

Other instruments on board MRO, not solicited by this opportunity, constitute reflights of experiments lost with the failure of the Mars Climate Orbiter mission.

The specific scientific objectives of the MRO mission include: researching the processes of present and past climate change on Mars, searching the surface and shallow-subsurface for sites that show evidence of water-related activity, investigating the processes that are responsible for the formation of the ubiquitous layers that have been observed on Mars, and probing the shallow-subsurface to identify regions where three-dimensional layering could indicate the presence of ice or possibly lenses of liquid water.

The 2005 MRO mission represents an integrated scientific-observation platform that will bring together teams from universities, industry, NASA centres, and other organisations. The spacecraft will be developed by Lockheed-Martin Astronautics, Denver, and is scheduled for launch to Mars in August 2005.

Launch Services

Eurockot to Launch Servis 1
Eurockot Launch Services of Bremen, Germany has signed a Launch Service Agreement with the Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer (USEF) of Tokyo, Japan for the launch of the Servis-1 spacecraft by a Rockot launch vehicle.

Servis-1 will be launched in 2003 from Eurockot's dedicated facilities at Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia.

Servis-1 the first flight of the "Space Environment Reliability Verification Integrated System" programme has been developed by USEF under the contract from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO).

Servis-1 is a technology satellite using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) parts in the space environment. It will launch into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 1000 km.

Integral Systems to Provide the Ground System for Satmex-6
Satmex (Satelites Mexicanos SA de CV) has awarded Integral Systems Inc a contract to provide the complete primary and backup ground systems for the Satmex-6 satellite, including the satellite control, flight dynamics, ground monitor and control, and data analysis software, along with baseband, RF and the back-up site antenna system.

The Satmex-6 system will incorporate all elements of Integral Systems' Epoch 2000 product line, the world's first commercial-off-the-shelf command and control software package for satellite and fleet operators. As part of this contract, Integral Systems has teamed with Vertex/RSI (a subsidiary of TriPoint Global Communications) to provide the RF and antenna subsystems.

This contract includes two separate options that Satmex may choose to exercise in the future. If is exercised, the first option would enable Satmex to include future planned satellite operations as part of the delivered system. This option would include expansion of the satellite control system, and additional baseband, RF and antenna systems at both the primary and backup site. The second option, if exercised, would enable Satmex to further consolidate their remaining satellite operations for the Satmex-5 and Solaridad-2 satellites onto the Integral Systems provided system.

Taurus Failure Blamed on Sticking Actuator
Orbital Sciences has revealed that a sticking actuator in the second stage steering mechanism caused the loss of a Taurus launcher on 21 September. The rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California and was carrying the OrbView-4 and QuikTOMS satellites.

The Taurus launcher performed normally for the first 83 seconds of its flight whilst powered by the first stage. However, following the firing of the second stage, the Taurus lost control for about five seconds whilst the actuator drive shaft appeared to stick, and then righted itself and continued in flight. Unfortunately, even though control was re-established, the launcher was not able to compensate for the earlier deviation in the flight and the two spacecraft being carrier were not able to reach orbit and were destroyed.

Coincidentally, the steering mechanism is being upgraded and this particular actuator design would not have been used on future flights.

Business

ICO Global and Teledesic Agree to End Proposed Merger
ICO Global, previously known as ICO-Teledesic Global Limited, has agreed with Teledesic Corporation to end their proposed merger to allow both companies the greatest flexibility in the current economic market. ICO Global has also announced that it has reached final agreement on its merger with New ICO Global Communications (Holdings) Limited.

In May 2000, ICO Global proposed the mergers of ICO and Teledesic with ICO Global. Teledesic is developing a global broadband satellite communications network whilst ICO is developing a mobile satellite system to offer high-quality mobile voice services and medium-speed wireless Internet and other packet-data services.

The ICO Global-New ICO merger is subject to ICO Global shareholder approval.

Products and Services

Eros Imagery Available from Metria
After the successful completion of its post-launch test phase, the Eros-Al satellite is operational and its imagery is now available from Metria.

To date, there are more than 2000 images in the archive of Eros-1A images from all over the world, and more images are added daily. An online catalogues is available at http://sweden.imagenet.com. Prices are US$ 1500 for a Standard scene, 12.5 x 12.5 km (1.8-m resolution) or for an OverSampled Scene, 6 x 6 km (l-m resolution).

People

Space Imaging Names VP, Federal Sales
Space Imaging has announced the appointment of Joe Dodd to the position of vice president of Federal Sales. Dodd's appointment is effective immediately.

Dodd is responsible for the overall management of the company's federal sales program including sales strategy and business development. Dodd's background has been primarily focused on management of remote sensing programs with emphasis on advanced special programs in space technology.

Before joining Space Imaging, Dodd worked for Orbital Imaging Corporation, where he held various executive management positions including vice president of Government Programs and senior vice president of Worldwide Sales. Prior to that, Dodd was director of Business Development for Special Programs for Hughes Space & Communications (now Boeing Satellite Systems).

Dodd holds a master's of science in satellite remote sensing from Penn State University.

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