22 July 2001

Satcoms

Euphon And Eutelsat Invest In New Digital Platform
Euphon has signed an agreement with Eutelsat to create a new satellite infrastructure for telecommunications services, TV/multimedia distribution and data transmission.

The project will involve an investment of more than 35 million Euros over ten years to build the satellite platform. The investment will be used to create hardware structures, define and develop new services, acquire the satellite capacity needed to relay transmissions and for operational and marketing support.

Under the agreement, Eutelsat will supply the space segment capacity and the satellite communications platform complete with all necessary hardware and software to be located in a dedicated area in the Euphon studios in Turin. Euphon will be responsible for operating and supporting the system.

The new satellite platform will be based on Eutelsat's OpenSky system. A range of services will be available, including:

• distribution of video signals for business TV, corporate networks and e-learning;
• distribution of video signals for entertainment;
• distribution of video signals for broadcasting live events or electronic transmissions for cinemas and other public screenings;
• data distribution for company networks;
• provision of fast Internet and intranet services by satellite, with the return channel via telephone line;
• distribution of video-streaming signals for the Internet and for data reception on PCs connected to a satellite dish and fitted with a smart card.

The project will also provide the platform's customers with high added-value services, such as editing and processing audio-visual material, managing multimedia content and customised broadband satellite applications, including bi-directional services for small and medium-sized enterprises.

The new platform will transmit on W3 at 7° E with an initial transmission capacity of 34 Mb/s already partly purchased by Euphon. On request, users will also have freedom of access to services, even on an occasional-use basis.

The Turin platform will be integrated with a fully bi-directional hub based on standard systems of the DVB-RCS type. These will offer businesses the most sophisticated network services, totally independent from the terrestrial network over a vast geographical area of major interest for Italian companies, particularly those in the north-west. Access to the platform will be facilitated by the connectivity available in Turin. In addition, DAMA DSAT 2000 satellite terminals will be able to handle connections of up to 4 Mb/s.

US Monolithics Delivers Consumer Ka Band Equipment to WildBlue
US. Monolithics (USM) has successfully designed and delivered Ka band transceiver equipment to WildBlue Communications, as part of an ongoing development partnership between the two companies.

The transceiver, which is capable of transmitting and receiving a signal from a satellite, delivers three watts of 30 GHz transmit power, with a 1.5 dB noise figure on the 20 GHz receiver. USM's transceiver is a key component of WildBlue's customer premise equipment.

USM believes this product to be the most highly integrated Ka band transceiver product in its class available on the market today. The transceiver utilises a proprietary GaAs MMIC chipset developed by US Monolithics, which includes an industry-leading four-watt Ka band power amplifier MMIC. The transceiver also uses proprietary technologies to minimise parts, reduce size, and improve reliability, all of which should lead to significant cost reductions in the future.

USM's transceiver product line was designed from its inception with volume production in mind. It employs highly integrated MMIC functions, a low parts count, simplified packaging methods, mature MMIC and assembly processes, and a robust design that minimises test and eliminates RF alignment.

Military Space

Harris On-Board Processors for Ball Aerospace
Harris Corporation has announced that it has been awarded three contracts totalling US$ 5.4 million to provide its RH3000 processor modules for several next-generation satellites manufactured by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, Boulder, Colorado.

The RH3000 processors will provide on-board data processing for CloudSat and other new satellites.

The processor module is based on the Harris family of RH3000 32-bit microprocessors. The RH3000 processor family is flight-proven, fully Rad-Hard for harsh space environments, and delivers 100% instruction-by-instruction compatibility with commercial R3000 processors.

US to Test Anti-Missile Lasers from Space
The Pentagon intends to test a space based missile interceptor within the next four years as part of its missile defence strategy.

According to Robert Snyder, executive director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, some US$ 110 has been allocated in the fiscal defence budget to study a variety of technologies, including space lasers, which have the capability to destroy missiles during their boost phase in the first few minutes after launch. The Pentagon hopes to test the space-based laser in 2005 or 2006.

Such a space based missile defence would be a violation of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

The plan is a return to the concept of "Brilliant Pebbles", a Strategic Defense Initiative program, which was to have placed thousands of missile intercepting satellites in orbit. Brilliant Pebbles was initially proposed in the mid 1980's and was cancelled in 1993 after an expenditure of US$ 4.8 billion.

Science

India's Rohini Satellite Re-enters
After seven years in orbit, the Indian Space Research Institute's Stretched Rohini Satellite (SROSS-C2) re-entered the atmosphere on July 12.

Rohini was launched by an ISRO Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle on 4 May 1994. The scientific spacecraft carried two instruments the Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) Detector and Retarding Potential Analyser (RPA).

Rohini had a design life of one year but eventually operated for more than seven years. Its mission nearly ended in June 2000, but its remaining on board fuel was used to raise its orbit and to delay re-entry.

NASA and NASDA Co-operate on X-Ray Satellite
The United States and Japan are to team up to rebuild and launch a X-ray powerful observatory for measuring high energy phenomena in the Universe.

The Astro-E2 observatory will replace the original Astro-E satellite, which was lost during launch in February 2000. The Japanese government recently approved the Astro-E2 mission and has invited NASA to participate.

Scheduled for launch in February 2005, the instruments on Astro-E2 will provide powerful tools to use the Universe as a laboratory for unravelling complex, high-energy processes and the behaviour of matter under extreme conditions. These include the fate of matter as it spirals into black holes, the nature of supermassive black holes found at the centre of quasars, the 100 million degree gas that is flowing into giant clusters of galaxies, and the nature of supernova explosions that create the heavier elements, which ultimately form planets.

NASA will provide the core instrument, the high resolution X-Ray Spectrometer (XRS). The XRS will be the first X-ray microcalorimeter array to be placed in orbit. It measures the heat created by individual X-ray photons.

The XRS operates at a temperature of 65 mK, and is held at this temperature by a three stage cooling system developed jointly by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science in Japan. The cryogenic system is capable of maintaining the temperature of the microcalorimeter array for about two years in orbit.

Japan will provide the other instruments on Astro-E2, a set of four X-ray cameras and a high-energy X-ray detector. NASA will also provide the five X-ray telescopes required to focus X-rays on the XRS and the X-ray cameras.

Technology

Lightweight Power for Space
Lithium Power Technologies Inc has announced that the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's (BMDO) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program has sponsored a Phase I contract to design and develop novel versatile power source technologies for satellites.

The Company will develop flexible, energy dense, powerful and lightweight modular components for anti-missile defence applications, next generation military applications, space platforms and deep space exploration.

The technology is aimed at filling the deficiencies that presently limit the widespread use of photovoltaic-battery power systems. This award carries with it as much as US$ 64,614 in research funds.

This contract award will combine thin film battery and capacitor technologies with existing photovoltaic technology to produce power source components that may be adaptable to form the actual structural panels of spacecraft. This allows cutting major construction costs, maximising space power and providing more useable space for additional power.

Launch Services

Recovering Artemis
Following last week's disastrous launch by Ariane 5 which placed two communications satellites in the wrong orbit, engineers at the European Space Agency and Altel have begun the complex process of recovering ESA's Artemis satellite.

The satellite is fully under the control of the Altel (Alenia Spazio-Telespazio) operations team and system engineers in Fucino, Italy, supported by a team of ESA specialists, after a successful first orbit-raising manoeuvre.

The satellite was left in a degraded orbit due to a malfunction in Ariane 5's upper stage. Artemis was injected into an orbit with a perigee of 590 km, an apogee 17 487 km and inclination of 2.94°, compared to expected values of 858 km perigee, 35 853 km apogee, and 2° inclination. Since injection into orbit the spacecraft's behaviour has been nominal. The solar arrays were partially deployed, according to plan, some two hours after launch and started delivering the power required for operation. Several calibrations and simulated apogee firings have been performed days to prepare for the orbit manoeuvres.

The recovery strategy adopted aims to bring the satellite to the nominal geostationary position and to maintain chemical propellant and xenon (the gas used for the electrical ion-propulsion system) to maximise the lifetime of the spacecraft, originally planned to last 10 years.

The combined ESA/Alenia Spazio-Telespazio team has jointly selected a four-step strategy for bringing Artemis from the current non-nominal orbit to the geostationary orbit, as follows:

Step 1: The apogee boost motor (using chemical propulsion) is to be fired during several perigee passes to increase the apogee to about 31 000 km. The perigee will not be raised by very much. Ground stations at Fucino (Italy), Malindi (Kenya), Perth (Australia), Goldstone (USA) and Kourou (French Guiana) will monitor the satellite. This step was commenced on July 18th and is currently continuing.

Step 2: The elliptical orbit is then circularised by a number of apogee and perigee manoeuvres resulting in a quasi-circular parking orbit with the satellite at 31 000 km above the Earth and an orbit duration of about 18 hours. On completion of this step, the solar arrays will be fully deployed, as will the antenna reflectors. The satellite will then be in nominal mode, while not yet in geostationary orbit. This step will be performed in the next few days.

Step 3: With the satellite in the parking orbit, nominal spacecraft commissioning (activation and checking that all satellite elements are operating correctly) will be carried out, as far as is possible, in this sub-geostationary orbit. This step will last about 2 months and will be carried out during August and September.

Step 4: The satellite will then be "spiralled" from the parking orbit to the nominal geostationary orbit using the satellite's electrical ion-propulsion system. This final step will begin at the end of September and will last for several month.

Launches

Cosmos 1

Launched: July 2001
Site: submarine in the Barents Sea
Launcher: Volna
Orbit: sub-orbital
Name: Cosmos 1
Owner: Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios
Contractor: Babakin research bureau

Cosmos 1 is a solar sail technology demonstrator. Cosmos 1 carries two solar sail blades, compared to the eight blades that will be carried by the final version of the satellite.

It was launched on a 30 minute ballistic flight from the Ryazan submarine in the Barents Sea before landing in the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia's far east. During the flight the deployment and performance of the solar sail will be tested. During re-entry the spacecraft will be protected by an inflatable re-entry shield.

After launch the spacecraft was to have separated from the launcher, the re-entry shield was to have deployed and them the solar sail was to have been deployed. This sequence was to have been monitored by two on board cameras. Just prior to re-entry, the solar sail blades were to have been jettisoned.

During the flight the spacecraft was tracked by radar and its telemetry monitored successfully. However, the recovery teams have not yet been able to locate the re-entered spacecraft. Unfortunately, the only record of the deployment and performance of the solar sail is carried on the spacecraft. It will not be known whether the flight was a success or failure until the spacecraft is recovered, if ever, and the video from its on boards cameras is analysed.

Molniya 1-K

Launched: 20 July 2001
Site: Plesetsk cosmodrome, Russia
Launcher: Molniya-M
International Number: 2001-030A
Name: Molniya 1-K (Molniya 3-51)

Business

eSAT Inc Signs Service Provider Agreement With Intersputnik
eSAT Inc has signed a service provider agreement with satellite operator Intersputnik. Under the revenue-sharing agreement, Intersputnik will provide satellite connectivity for the purpose of test marketing eSat's Nexstream and VOS technology in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

eSAT is a provider of network management solutions and satellite services. Through its PacificNet Inc subsidiary, eSAT markets a proprietary "virtual" ISP (V-ISP) product and service, as well as the ability to provide both network management and data centre services through its existing data facility in Universal City, California.

Intelsat Privatised
Satellite operator Intelsat has completed its transformation from a treaty-based organisation to a privately-held company.

The new company, Intelsat, Ltd, was created with over 200 shareholders comprised of companies from more than 145 countries.

Formed in 1964 to provide global communications, Intelsat resulted from the Communications Satellite Act signed by US President Kennedy in 1962. The decision to privatise was formally made by Intelsat's member nations in November 2000 to enhance the company's flexibility and competitiveness in an increasingly dynamic market, and to address customer demands for Internet and broadband services.

ViaSat Acquires LMGT's VSAT Product Lines
Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications (LMGT) and ViaSat Inc have signed an agreement under which ViaSat will acquire LMGT's Products business for cash and stock.

The acquisition, which will augment ViaSat's position in its core satellite networks and communications systems business, is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close during the third calendar quarter of 2001. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The LMGT Products unit specialises in broadband satellite network terminals designed to extend the reach and functionality of networks using a variety of flexible, multi-protocol products. The terminals support high-speed voice, video, data, multimedia and Internet connections under the Linkway and LinkStar brand names.

Prior to the acquisition of Comsat Corporation by LMGT in 2000, the Products business, which employs approximately 70 people, was part of Comsat Laboratories. The remainder of the former Comsat Laboratories, which is now part of LMGT's Systems & Technology business, is unaffected by this transaction.

Products and Services

Actel Ships Qualified FPGA With Unique Hardened Latches
Actel Corporation has announced qualification and shipment of the RT54SX32S field-programmable gate array (FPGA), the first member of the company's radiation-tolerant RTSX-S family specifically designed to address single-event upsets (SEUs) in space.

Actel's RTSX-S family is the industry's first FPGA solution built using SEU-hardened latches, eliminating the need for software-based triple module redundancy (TMR). At >63MeV-cm2/mg SEU performance, Actel's 32,000-gate RT54SX32S antifuse device greatly exceeds the linear energy transfer (LET) threshold of >37MeV-cm2/mg, a physical requirement common to the majority of satellite applications. The SEU-hardened latches, total ionising dose (TID) performance in excess of 100 Krad, and inherent single-event latchup (SEL) demonstrate the RTSX-S family's robust survivability within radiation-intensive applications, such as low-Earth orbiting satellites and deep space probes.

The RT54SX32S has been fully characterised for the effects of TID, SEL and SEU. Further, the radiation performance of the device has exceeded expectations for both process- and design-dependent parameters, as substantiated by three independent tests. The RTSX-S family's SEU-hardened latch proved to be impervious to heavy ion upset far beyond Actel's 37 LETth goal; TID performance tested in excess of 100 Krad; and, consistent with all of Actel's radiation-hardened and radiation-tolerant devices, the RT54SX32S has tested immune to destructive heavy ion-induced SEL effects.

The RTSX-S family ranges in density from 32,000 to 72,000 typical gates, and offers system performance in excess of 250 MHz. Actel's RTSX-S family is the industry's first FPGA solution built on a foundation of hardened latches, which obviates the need for TMR. Traditional FPGAs, which do not use hardened latches, force the user to implement TMR using software or a large portion of the device's programmable logic. This process of majority voting, or redundancy, means that two-thirds of the density, or available logic, is consumed for redundancy and isn't available for the user's design.

ADC International Launches Secure Mobile Communications Products and Services
ADC International LLC, a provider of secure mobile satellite communication products and services, has launched a variety of product, airtime and maintenance service packages to meet government and commercial customer needs.

ADCI provides a "quick action" response to the "unique" portable and secure communication requirements of its Department of Defense, diplomatic, emergency/disaster relief and maritime customers. ADCI also offers a variety of products and service solutions for corporate executives and commercial remote access operations.

ADCI, newly established and headquartered in Sterling, Virginia, is majority owned by Compagnia Generale Telemar SpA (Telemar) of Rome, Italy and Virginia based, Applied Design Concepts Inc (ADC). The terms and conditions of the joint venture were not disclosed.

People

Channel Master Appoints Director of Program Management
William "Bill" Fitzgerald has been named Director of Program Management at Channel Master LLC.

As director of program management, Fitzgerald will be responsible for developing, implementing and maintaining efficient program management and project management procedures for Channel Master's worldwide list of OEM (original equipment manufacturer) accounts.

Most recently, he has been with Com Dev International, Wireless Group as the company's vice president of sales.

Fitzgerald is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. He subsequently received his MBA from Georgia State University.

Globalstar Telecommunications Appoints Restructuring Officer
Globalstar Telecommunications Limited (GTL) has announced today that Ira E Goldberg has been appointed restructuring officer for the company.

GTL is a Bermuda-based company that exists solely as a partner in Globalstar LP, allowing public equity investment in this global mobile satellite telephony company. Mr. Goldberg, on behalf of GTL, will be working with the other Globalstar partners on the restructuring of Globalstar LP with the ongoing assistance of The Blackstone Group.

The executive management team of Globalstar LP, which manages the day-to-day operations of the company, remains in place.

GTL also announced that Douglas G Dwyre, Sir Ronald Grierson, E John Peett, Michael B Targoff, and A Robert Towbin will continue to serve as members of its board of directors. Other directors, including Bernard L Schwartz, Michael P DeBlasio, Robert B Hodes, Arthur L Simon and Eric J Zahler, have resigned, effective July 18, 2001.

New Skies Satellites Expands Regional Sales and Marketing Force
New Skies Satellites is expanding its global presence with new sales and marketing appointments for Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Australia.

The appointments are:

Ng Chin Hock, Director Media Solutions, Asia. Before he joined New Skies, Chin Hock was director with Singapore Technologies (ST) Teleport, a major satellite uplink/downlink earth station in the Asia Pacific Region. Ng Chin Hock holds double master's degrees: master of business administration (MBA) in general management from the University of Hull (United Kingdom) and master of science (MSc) in electronic engineering from the University of Nottingham (United Kingdom). He is a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers (MIEE), United Kingdom and a chartered engineer (CEng).

Martin Brasg, Sales Manager, Africa. Martin Brasg was formerly business development manager with UUNET South Africa. He was a member of the implementation team developing an Internet network in 14 African countries together with Africa Online. Martin Brasg holds a bachelor's degree in photojournalism and a diploma in business management.

Gerard Donelan, Director, European Sales. Gerard Donelan was a founding member of the London Satellite Exchange and its director of Ground Segment. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, a post graduate diploma in project management and a BTEC diploma in communications engineering.

Hussein Oteifa, Sales Director Middle East. Hussein Oteifa comes to New Skies from Orblynx Inc, where he was managing director for the Middle East, Africa and Southern Europe. He holds a master's degree in international management and a bachelor's degree in business administration from Cairo University.

Chris Tarran, General Manager Sales and Marketing, New Skies Networks Pty Ltd. Prior to joining New Skies, he was account director of carriers with Jtec Pty Ltd, most recently serving as national sales manager.

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