29 July 2001

Satcoms

Comsys Publishes Latest VSAT Report
The latest VSAT Report from Comsys indicates that the annual VSAT service industry is valued at more than US$ 3.5 billion and continued to grow through 2000 at a rate of 10% per year.

The study found that, whilst so many other sectors of the mainstream telecommunications market are struggling, VSAT operators have managed to exploit new niches and broaden the value proposition for the technology. In contrast, hardware revenues remain flat in all regions of the world except North America where falling terminal prices finally seem to be resulting in greater sales volumes.

Comsys expects that hardware prices will now be driven down by consumer VSAT initiatives from Hughes Network Systems, Gilat Satellite Networks and ViaSat. Large-scale enterprise networks will increasingly benefit from the volumes and product enhancements which will spin out of the huge consumer deployments now being seen in the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia. However, Comsys continues to believe that the short to medium term growth of the industry will be found in the SME and large corporate enterprise sectors of the market.

The VSAT Report 2001 provides a comprehensive look at the VSAT industry with detailed coverage of over 200 operators and 40 products in all parts of the world. With over 1,450 pages and with over 200 tables and charts, The VSAT Report analyses and reports on all aspects of the industry's hardware and service business related to revenues, sales, shipments and contracts. It also considers the trends seen in the technology and the development and likely impact regionally and globally of new broadband VSAT services.

Despite the problems which have afflicted the telecommunications business generally, the VSAT industry has managed to buck the trend with an overall increase in the cumulative TDMA VSAT terminal market of 20%. During 1999 and early 2000 the business suffered from the same over-inflated expectations and claims of the Internet boom as other hi-tech industries, but even discounting less credible orders, it still managed to post a sales growth rate of almost 16% between 2000 and 1999. With almost half a million units shipped and approximately 300,000 sites in service with operators in developed and developing countries the technology is well established as a serious enterprise solution and has posted consistent rates of growth over the past five years.

However, there is evidence that growth in the major corporate enterprise market is beginning to slow as the market becomes saturated. Whilst there remain good opportunities in Europe and Asia, the industry is increasingly looking to expand into new enterprise related sectors. The report points out that opportunities have been identified to serve the SME and extended enterprise, such as vertical industries, communities of interest and employee networks. Comsys believes that this new focus on other elements of the core enterprise business, coupled with the consumer Internet access services which are now being considered as credible DSL extension alternatives, will blur the distinction between the enterprise and the consumer markets.

The DAMA VSAT market also had a good year in 2000 with sales recovering from the slump caused by the Asian crisis of 1997. Terminal orders in 2000 were up almost 24% over 1999 and revenues realised through operators grew by 30% in the same period.

The study found that a strong trend emerging in this segment of the business (which typically delivers voice connections and data channels up to 2 Mb/s) was an increased demand for IP and frame relay solutions, rather than traditional voice links. The growth in this area has been driven by the fact that terrestrial services with greater coverage and much improved quality have led operators to seek greater value as SCPC services have become marginalised and suffered extensive and rapid erosion in some developing world markets.

The DAMA market is small in relation to the star data enterprise-based business, but it represents a rapidly growing segment for those manufacturers with sophisticated data orientated products. The bulk of the star data market remains dependent on developed markets - North America accounted for about two thirds of all sales - but the move towards a solutions-based value proposition in Latin America and Asia suggests that the potential for these markets is growing. In the DAMA sector, developing markets accounted for more than three quarters of sales in 2000. However, the increasing data sophistication, higher data rates and dynamic bandwidth allocation schemes of these systems broadens the potential market considerably.

In the star data enterprise segment the exuberance of the Internet boom of 1999 led to some exceptional contract claims and in order to correct this statistical glitch the latest Comsys report measures market shares by shipments on contract awards in any given year. This proxy shows that Hughes Network Systems maintained its leadership of the market with a share of more than 51% whilst Gilat Satellite Networks took over 44% leaving little for the remaining players. What is clear today is that Gilat and Hughes are only able to maintain momentum by growing the market - there is no more potential expansion through acquisition of market share. Hughes and Gilat also dominate the service side of the business with 44% and 19% respectively of the total sites in service globally.

The VSAT Report 2001 is available from Comsys, priced at US$ 3,995. Further information, including extracts from the report and a table of contents, is available at www.comsys.co.uk.

ENEL Becomes Major Globalstar Customer
Ente Nazionale per l'Energia Elettrica (ENEL), the largest electric power utility in Italy, has ordered 4,500 Globalstar phones, the largest of a series of orders that Globalstar has closed in recent weeks around the world.

Globalstar phones, both mobile and fixed models, are now being provided to ENEL by Wind, a leading Italian wireless provider, as part of an integrated communications system combining Wind's terrestrial GSM cellular service with Globalstar's satellite service. The phones will be used by ENEL field personnel in the maintenance and monitoring of electric power lines and other operations, and also as a back-up communications system in case of power failures or other emergency situations.

In addition to the recent order from ENEL, Globalstar continues to sign up customers across a wide range of industries and governmental areas in every region where service is available. In the past several weeks alone, new customers have been acquired in all target markets including:

Oil exploration and transport: Petrobrás, the Brazilian national petroleum company, and Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Sakhalin Energy, and Tyumen Oil Geophysics - three Russian companies - recently selected Globalstar phones for use in remote areas and from offshore oil platforms.

Electric power transmission: Repair crews for AO Tyumenenergo, an electric power company in Russia, are now using Globalstar phones while servicing high-voltage power lines in isolated locations.

Construction: Baltic Construction Company has deployed both fixed and mobile phones for both voice and data communications along a railway system through the Amur Region of Russia.

Broadcasting: Most of the major US television networks have purchased Globalstar phones for their news bureaus, both in the US and overseas. ABC News, for example, has purchased a number of phones for use in the southern US during hurricane season when other forms of communications may be knocked out.

Forestry: Both the US Forest Service and the British Columbia Ministry of Forests in Canada have recently purchased Globalstar phones.

Remote Communities: 180 fixed units were recently installed in a variety of remote communities across Venezuela, with further units now in the process of being installed. About 60 of these units have been in place for several weeks and are already each recording over 2,000 minutes of use per month, with some individual phones running as high as 5,000 minutes. Similar usage patterns are also being seen in other fixed phone installations elsewhere in Latin America.

Government: Two Brazilian state governments recently ordered Globalstar equipment, with phones being used in one state by the Tax Authority for installation in a fleet of vehicles used to support tax collection in remote locations. In the second state, a network of hydrometeorology measurement stations will soon be using Globalstar SCADA data modems to regularly transmit rainfall and other weather information to a central data collection point. In the United States, local, state and federal government agencies continue to sign up for Globalstar service. In the last few weeks, Orange County, California and the State of Nevada have collectively purchased several hundred Globalstar phones, and New York State has ordered several of the company's recently introduced encryption units.

ICO to Use Bluetooth Technology for Urban and Rural Services
ICO Global Communications is gaining support for a proposal to bring advanced communications services to rural and underserved customers in the United States and around the world.

In March, ICO asked the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to give mobile satellite service (MSS) operators in the 2 GHz band permission to re-use their own assigned frequencies terrestrially on an ancillary basis - after their satellite systems are up and commercially operating.

Wireless pioneer Craig McCaw, who rescued ICO from bankruptcy proceedings in May 2000, believes that using small terrestrial antennas, or "repeaters," to solve indoor coverage problems and to extend service availability to urban areas is critical to enabling MSS operators to be commercially viable.

Early-generation technology employed by Iridium and Globalstar does not allow calls inside buildings or in dense urban areas, severely hampering the companies' ability to attract customers. ICO intends to use Bluetooth technology in its palm-size repeaters, separating the bulky satellite antenna from the wireless device and enabling customers to use compact cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) both inside and outside buildings and in rural and urban areas.

On July 17, the FCC granted ICO a license to provide service in the US, an important first step in ICO's efforts to receive FCC approval to implement its repeater concept, known as an "ancillary terrestrial component" (ATC), which would require an FCC rule change.

ICO's first satellite was successfully placed in orbit on June 19. ICO's full constellation will consist of 10 satellites plus two in-orbit spares. The company plans to begin service in 2003.

Earth Observation

NASA Awards Orbimage Hyperspectral Imagery Contract
Orbimage has announced a multi-year agreement with NASA's Stennis Space Center to supply up to US$ 6 million in imagery from the 200-band hyperspectral camera to be carried on the company's OrbView-4 satellite.

NASA will use the OrbView-4 hyperspectral data to develop environmental monitoring applications for managing the Earth's water and land resources.

All natural and man-made materials on the surface of the Earth have a unique signature of reflected light from the sun. This signature is more detailed than can be captured by a conventional camera or the human eye. However, the OrbView-4 hyperspectral camera will be able to measure this signature and actually identify materials from space that include plant species, mineral types and inland and coastal water features. Orbimage will distribute OrbView-4 hyperspectral imagery for applications that range from mineral, oil and gas exploration, to national security activities, to forestry, farming and environmental monitoring applications.

Under this new agreement with Orbimage, NASA will use the OrbView-4 hyperspectral imagery to develop environmental monitoring applications as part of its Earth Observations Commercial Applications Program (EOCAP).

Environmental monitoring applications for hyperspectral data focus on the ability to efficiently measure, map and monitor natural resources on a global basis. A few examples of current environmental-related uses for hyperspectral imagery include identifying sources of heavy metal contamination from abandoned mines, examining the health of desert vegetation, performing climate change studies, tracking grizzly bear habitats and monitoring the health of coral reef eco-systems.

Orbimage's OrbView-4 imaging satellite is planned for launch in August aboard an Orbital Sciences Corporation Taurus rocket. In addition to the 8-meter spatial resolution hyperspectral camera, the satellite will have a one-meter resolution panchromatic (black and white) and a four- meter resolution multispectral (colour) capabilities, that will provide imagery to customers worldwide. In terms of hyperspectral imagery, the new OrbView-4 imagery will complement the current aerial sources of this data, such as NASA's AVIRIS instrument, as well as the only other space-based hyperspectral camera, NASA's Hyperion instrument.

Science

Caliper and NASA to Grow Macromolecular Crystals on Space Station
Caliper Technologies Corp and NASA have established an Applications Developer Program (ADP) collaboration through a subcontract with Sverdrup Technology Inc (a subsidiary of Jacobs Engineering Corp) to create macromolecular crystals aboard the International Space Station using LabChip technology.

The goal of the collaboration is to develop custom chips and LabChip systems to facilitate the growth of macromolecular crystals in a microgravity environment. The information resulting from the subsequent x-ray diffraction analysis can be used by researchers to help determine the three-dimensional structure of a macromolecule that, in turn, may reveal details about the molecule's function and behaviour in the body.

The ADP collaboration is a new proteomics initiative undertaken by NASA's Iterative Biological Crystallization (IBC) project to use LabChip technology to miniaturise, automate and integrate the processes of liquid mixing and dispensing, remote imaging and crystal growth in space. The LabChip system will be designed to enable a researcher on earth to set up experimental conditions in space, directly observe and analyse the crystals, and then identify desired changes to the crystallisation solution formulas for subsequent experimental reiterations of crystal growth.

Currently, when performed on earth, macromolecule crystallisation is a labour-intensive, lengthy process that requires significant consumption of expensive macromolecules and reagents. Working in concert, Caliper, NASA, and Sverdrup intend to create a customised microfluidic chip specially designed for use in the microgravity environment of space.

The goal of the joint development program is to provide researchers with a more stable and uniform environment in which to create higher quality crystals and develop a more reproducible process for crystallisation while potentially reducing reagent consumption up to 1000-fold.

Pilot studies in macromolecule crystallisation recently performed by Caliper and NASA successfully demonstrated the feasibility of using LabChip technology to grow macromolecular crystals and laid the groundwork for establishing the ADP collaboration.

The initial phase of the Caliper/NASA ADP collaboration is being formed through a subcontract with Sverdrup Technology Inc, through their Engineering, Science, and Technical Contract with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

The Applications Developer Program (ADP) enables customers to develop the skills and proficiency to create novel chip-based microfluidic applications utilising Caliper's proprietary LabChip technology and developmental tool set. The ADP offers customers the ability to establish their own in-house microfluidics research program and to develop specific chip-based applications that are of value to them. Caliper supplies the microfluidic tool set and training as well as chip design, fabrication and manufacturing. The ADP can accommodate the goals of end-users that intend to create new applications and use chips predominantly for their own use, as well as vendor customers that may be interested in expanding their product offering to include a chip-based microfluidic component or adapting their products to the LabChip platform.

JPL Awards Mars Ascent Vehicle Study Contracts
NASA's Mars Technology Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has awarded three industry contracts for the development of concepts for a small rocket that will lift science samples gathered by NASA's Mars Sample Return mission from the Martian surface and support their return to Earth.

A panel consisting of propulsion experts including NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and JPL selected these companies from the five that responded to the request for proposals. The awardees are:

• Boeing Company, Huntington Beach, California
• Lockheed Martin Corporation, Denver, Colorado
• TRW, Redondo Beach, California

The contracts are valued at US$ 300,000 each and are to be performed over a six-month period. These studies will provide independent concepts and technology roadmaps to develop a Mars Ascent Vehicle for the Mars Sample Return mission. Concepts emerging from these studies will contribute to the final specifications for the eventual Mars Ascent Vehicle.

The Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) will be carried to the Martian surface as part of the Mars Sample Return spacecraft, planned for launch no earlier than 2011.

Technology

Solar Sail Lost When Booster Failed
The third stage of the Volna rocket launching the Planetary Society's Cosmos 1 solar sail experiment failed to separate from the spacecraft, dooming the test to failure.

The Volna rocket, a converted ballistic missile, was launched from a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea. It was intended that when the third stage of the launcher separated from the spacecraft an inflatable re-entry shield would deploy followed by the two-blade solar sail experiment. The deployment was to have been monitored by two on-board cameras.

Unfortunately, the spacecraft was not able to separate from the launcher due to a failure in the third stage - it appears that because the on-board computer in the third stage detected a problem with the launcher, the separation command was disabled. This prevented the deployment of the re-entry shield and the solar sail.

The spacecraft is thought to have crashed close to its intended landing site on the Kamchatka peninsula in eastern Russia, but has not yet been recovered.

Spectrum Astro to Develop Space Internet Hardware
The NASA Glenn Research Center has awarded Spectrum Astro a contract to develop spacecraft network hardware called Space Network Devices (SND).

This contract is part of the High Rate Data Delivery (HRDD) Thrust Area of NASA's Cross-Enterprise Technology Development Program (CETDP). The CETDP develops critical space technologies that lower costs, improve performance and enable new missions for the Earth Science, Space Science, and Human Exploration and Development in Space (HEDS) Enterprises. The HRDD Thrust Area facilitates communication and information technology breakthroughs enabling the high rate delivery of data between space and the ground. The contract is valued at US$ 960,000 with a two-year period of performance and contains options that increase it to US$ 3 million over five years.

The objective of the NASA Glenn project is to develop prototype network hardware that enables the use of TCP/IP for space applications. Local Area Network (LAN) hardware, including a switch and Network Interface Card (NIC), will be developed. Future plans include utilising these components as building blocks for a space-based router. The idea behind Space Network Devices is to take concepts and technologies developed for the Internet and use them to communicate onboard a spacecraft. For example, communication between a sensor instrument payload interface board and a Command and Data Handling electronics board on the spacecraft bus would occur over a space-borne LAN.

This technology is a first step in transitioning to a space communications paradigm where seamless interoperability is possible using TCP/IP onboard a spacecraft, between a spacecraft and the ground, and from spacecraft to spacecraft. The spacecraft or specific components on the spacecraft will possess IP addresses and communicate with other nodes on the Internet. The use of open standards such as LAN standards and TCP/IP for space applications provides a means of simple, cost-effective routing of data by leveraging the tremendous investment already made in terrestrial Internet communication and information technology.

With the use of standard interfaces onboard a spacecraft, life cycle costs and schedules can be reduced during the development, integration, test, and operations phases. For example, instead of taking the time required to design and build custom test equipment for each spacecraft, standards-based COTS test equipment could be purchased and immediately implemented during critical parts of testing and integration.

Tecstar Solar Cells for Mars Rover
Tecstar Inc's TEC 3i solar cell has been selected to power NASA JPL's latest Martian Exploration spacecraft and robotic rover vehicle.

The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) is the latest in a series of Mars missions that will some day enable a manned visit to Mars. MER will carry an array of advanced sensors and instruments including cameras and multiple spectrometers to determine if there is evidence of liquid water in Mars history. The rovers are much larger than the "Sojourner" rover employed in the Mars Pathfinder Mission.

Tecstar, together with JPL scientists and engineers, will design, build and test a family of solar panels necessary to power the spacecraft during its voyage to Mars and then to power the Exploration Rover up to 100 km per Martian day. MER is JPL's most ambitious autonomously powered rover design to date.

Tecstar's TEC 3i solar cell offers solar array designers the largest format, very high efficiency solar cell available in production today. It incorporates a unique monolithic bypass diode feature that increases the life time and reliability of the solar array while reducing the cost and weight of the solar array required to power the spacecraft.

TEC 3i recently entered production and has quickly been established as a market-leading technology choice for solar array and spacecraft designers.

Launch Services

Artemis Recovery Continues
Ground control in Fucino, Italy, the operations team and system engineers of the Altel (Alenia Spazio-Telespazio) consortium, supported by European Space Agency (ESA) specialists, reports that since Tuesday 24 July ESA's Artemis satellite has been successfully positioned in its circular parking orbit at about 31,000 km.

The satellite, launched from Kourou by an Ariane 5 on Thursday 12 July, had been put into the wrong orbit due to a malfunction on the launcher's upper stage. The injection orbit had a perigee of 590 km, an apogee of 17487 km and an inclination of 2.94°, compared to expected values of 858 km, 35853 km and 2° respectively.

Since injection into orbit, the spacecraft's behaviour has been nominal, allowing ESA to rapidly adopt a recovery strategy that aims to take the satellite to a nominal geostationary position of approximately 36,000 km, maximising the lifetime of the spacecraft originally planned to last ten years.

The strategy consists of four steps, the first two of which have now been successfully completed.

Under step 1 (18 to 20 July), the apogee boost motor (chemical propulsion) was fired during five perigee passes to increase the apogee (maximum distance) to about 31,000 km, without significant changes to the perigee.

Under step 2 (22 to 24 July), the elliptical orbit was circularised by three consecutive motor burns. This resulted in a circular parking orbit with the satellite at approximately 31,000 km, an orbit duration of about 20 hours and an inclination of 0.8°. On completion of this step, the solar arrays were fully deployed, as were the two antenna reflectors.

The satellite is currently operating in quasi-nominal mode fully under the control of the ESA/Alenia Spazio-Telespazio team, pointing at the Earth and with the solar panels tracking the sun, while not yet in geostationary orbit. In step 3 with the satellite in parking orbit, unforeseen but now required control modes for orbit-raising using ion engine propulsion will have to be patched (by software uploads) and commissioned. The ion engines themselves will then be initialised and checked out.

Under step 4 (expected to start late September and last several months), the satellite will be "spiralled" from parking to nominal geostationary orbit using its novel electrical ion-propulsion system. Spacecraft commissioning (activation and checking that all items are operating correctly) will proceed subsequently. These operations, which are common to all satellites at the beginning of their lifetime, will last a further couple of months.

The recovery operation involves a certain number of unusual activities which could not all be planned for in advance. In particular, the ion propulsion system - originally to be used only for controlling the inclination of the spacecraft throughout its lifetime - will be operated in a new mode.

The on-board supply of propellant remaining after the orbit raising manoeuvres, i.e. chemical and xenon (the gas used for the electrical ion-propulsion system), should make possible a meaningful technology mission in geostationary orbit, assuming proper operation in new modes both in parking orbit and during ion-engine orbit-raising manoeuvres.

Inmarsat Buys Atlas V Launch for I-4 Satellite
International Launch Services (ILS) and Inmarsat Ventures plc signed a contract this week for the launch of at least one of Inmarsat's next-generation satellites, the Inmarsat I-4, during 2003/2004 using the Atlas V rocket.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Inmarsat is now the sixth commercial customer to sign up for the Atlas V, which is scheduled to make its debut launch next year. The contract includes options for additional launches.

Launches

GOES-M

Launched: 23 July 2001
Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Launcher: Atlas 2AS
Orbit: GEO
International Number: 2001-031A
Name: GOES-M (GOES-12)
Owner: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Contractor: Space Systems/Loral

GOES-M is the fifth and final spacecraft to be launched in the current advanced series of geostationary environmental weather satellites for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The spacecraft is a three-axis inertial stabilised weather satellite that has the dual capability of providing pictures while performing Earth atmospheric soundings at the same time. A suite of space weather environment monitoring instruments, including a new solar x-ray imager, are also aboard the satellite.

Once in geostationary orbit GOES-M is to be designated GOES-12.

GOES-M will be stored on orbit ready for operation when needed as a replacement for either GOES-8 or 10. It joins GOES-11, which is also in storage.

Business

Arbitrators Find in Favour of New Skies Satellites
A three-person panel hearing the arbitration case regarding New Skies' cancellation of the KTV satellite contract has unanimously resolved the case in favour of New Skies.

The decision found that New Skies' termination for cause of the satellite contract with satellite manufacturer Astrium was proper. This entitles New Skies to a return of payments made amounting to US$ 53,251,842.00.

In November 1999, New Skies terminated the construction contract for a satellite, named KTV, because the manufacturer failed to deliver the satellite on time, leading to the loss of significant contracted revenues. New Skies' notice of termination was challenged by the manufacturer and New Skies filed for arbitration, to be conducted in Washington DC under the auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce Court of International Arbitration.

Astrium to Acquire Bosch Satcom
Bosch is to sell its satellite payload subsidiary, Bosch SatCom GmbH, to Astrium.

Bosch intends to concentrate on its core businesses and has decided to divest Bosch SatCom GmbH which designs, manufactures and sells payload equipment for the commercial communication satellite market.

Astrium is one of Bosch SatCom's major customers.

Bosch Satcom has 630 employees and achieved total sales of 78 million Euros in 2000. The company has participated in more than 350 space projects since 1971. The terms of the sale were not disclosed, and the agreement is still subject to approval by cartel authorities.

Boeing and Customers Share New Facility
A unique side-by-side collocation of satellite industry contractors and their US government customers is made possible by the newest facility on the El Segundo campus of Boeing Satellite Systems (BSS).

The facility is a newly renovated eight-story office building at 2300 E. Imperial Highway, immediately adjacent to BSS headquarters. About 300 workers in the BSS Department of Defense/Civil Programs unit currently occupy four floors of the building. The building has been retrofitted with fibre-optics, and a conference and event centre equipped with state-of-the-art audiovisual, videoconferencing and presentation equipment is among the new amenities at the site.

The facility houses several key BSS military satellite communications programs, most notably the Ultra High Frequency Follow-On (UHF F/O) program, for which BSS is under contract for 11 satellites; Milstar; Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF); and the company's newest program, Wideband Gapfiller Satellite (WGS), a multi-satellite Department of Defense (DoD) communications system that the company won in January.

Last year the owner of the 26-year-old building undertook a full exterior renovation and demolished most of the interior. Starting with that gutted shell, BSS built offices for more than 300 people as well as data banks and fully equipped conference and presentation rooms. The project took about 12 months.

The largest of these rooms is the first floor conference centre, which also contains the largest and most capable videoconference centre on the BSS campus. Designed to accommodate up to 120 people, the room features specialised lighting, audio systems and a dual computer projection system. The facility's interactive two-way videoconference system uses high-speed data circuits, and its adjacent, professional-grade television "control room" will be used when broadcasting events via the BSS campus-wide computer and TV system.

The building's first floor lobby features a flexible product display area as well as guarded, secure access to the BSS office suites.

Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems Realigns Business Structure
Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems (LMCSS) has announced plans to realign its business structure to reduce overall costs and improve its competitive position in the commercial satellite manufacturing marketplace.

Under the realignment, Commercial Space Systems will relocate program management, business operations satellite engineering and design, business development and executive functions from Sunnyvale to the company's Newtown, Pennsylvania facility. Newtown currently provides the communications payloads for the A2100 satellite series, as well as secure, protected military communications payloads for the U.S. Government.

The final assembly, integration and testing of the company's A2100 spacecraft will continue to take place in Sunnyvale's state-of-the-art Commercial Satellite Center, one of the largest, most efficient facilities of its type in the industry. The manufacturing of A2100 solar arrays and assembly of certain electronic boxes will also continue in Sunnyvale. This relocation does not affect operations of three commercial satellite programs nearing the completion of their manufacturing cycle in Sunnyvale or the previously announced plan to assemble the A2100 propulsion systems in the Lockheed Martin Propulsion Center of Excellence being built in Stennis, Mississippi.

About 70 employees based in Sunnyvale will be transferred to Newtown. Sunnyvale will continue to support ongoing commercial space production activities at the product centres, the spacecraft operations centre and at the Integration and Test facility.

People

Appointments at Intelsat Follow Privatisation
At its first meeting since the company's privatisation, the board of directors of Intelsat elected John Sponyoe to the position of Chairman of the Board. Conny Kullman was appointed as a board member and the first CEO of the new, privately held company.

John Sponyoe, age 62, is CEO of Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications (LMGT), Intelsat's largest shareholder. He has served on the boards of Comsat Corporation, Lockheed Martin Intersputnik Ltd, American Asia-Pacific LLC, Astrolink International LLC and LMGT.

Conny Kullman, age 51, originally became CEO of the international co-operative in November 1998, with the mandate to lead the organisation to privatisation before the end of 2001. Since then, he has been the driving force behind crucial commercial and operational changes at Intelsat.

The full board consists of Kullman plus 16 non-management directors, including Sponyoe:

Chairman: John Sponyoe, Chief Executive Officer, Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications

Deputy Chairman: Wolfgang Wagner

Directors (in alphabetical order):
Brian Dailey, Vice President of Washington Operations, Lockheed Martin Corporation
Herbert Baptista Fiuza, Consultant, SKY Brasil and Distel Holding SA
Hans Fjøsne, Chief Technical Officer, Telenor Broadband Services AS
Serge Fortin, President of Global Markets, Teleglobe Communications Corporation
Neal Freeman, Chief Executive Officer, The Blackwell Corporation
Shailendra Kumar Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd
Gary Howard, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Liberty Media Corp
Carlos Alberto Killian, Vice President, Comisión Nacional de Comunicaciones
Conny Kullman, Chief Executive Officer, Intelsat Ltd
Matthew Luhanga, Vice Chancellor, University College of Dar es Salaam
Cheikh Tidiane Mbaye, Managing Director, SONATEL
Philippe-Olivier Rousseau, Global Head of Media & Telecommunications, BNP Paribas Corporate Finance
Jeremy Simons, Head of Consortia Investments, British Telecommunications plc
Robin Turner, General Manager and Director of Satellite Investment, Cable & Wireless plc
Christopher Vonwiller, Director, Appen Pty Limited

DirecTV Reassigns Key Executives
DirecTV Inc, a unit of Hughes Electronics Corporation, has reassigned top executives over its sales, marketing and customer service organisations, as the company focuses on improving its operational performance and reviving new customer acquisition while simultaneously improving customer retention and satisfaction.

Concurrent with the executive reassignments, DirecTV announced the resignation of Bill Casamo, executive vice president, Sales and Marketing and president, DirecTV Merchandising.

The DirecTV Sales organisation will report directly to Roxanne Austin, DirecTV president and COO, on an interim basis. Larry Chapman, a member of the original DirecTV launch team, has been named acting executive vice president, Marketing and Advertising, reporting to Austin.

A new organisation within DirecTV, the Customer Satisfaction organisation, will be lead on an interim basis by Bob Meyers, who has served as executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO). In his new role as acting executive vice president of Customer Satisfaction, Meyers will oversee DirecTV's Customer Service operations, Home Services Network and lease/warranty services. The Customer Satisfaction organisation will also focus on churn management and reduction initiatives. Mike Palkovic, senior vice president, Business Management, assumes responsibilities as acting CFO for DirecTV.

New Defence Post at Orbital
Orbital Sciences Corporation has announced that Dr Robert E Lindberg has been named Senior Vice President for Defense Programs, a newly formed position that will provide strategic direction and co-ordination of the company's business development activities in the areas of military space systems, missiles defence systems, classified programs and defence-related technical services.

Dr Lindberg is an Orbital veteran with more than 14 years of experience with the company, having served in senior-level positions in program and operating group management and in business development. His tenure with the company has been nearly evenly divided between the satellite and launch vehicle business units, Orbital's two largest product areas.

Prior to joining Orbital, Dr Lindberg spent 10 years at the Naval Research Laboratory, where he conducted and led research in advanced space technologies.

Dr Lindberg holds a BS degree in Physics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, an MS in Engineering Physics from the University of Virginia and a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University.

New Top Man at TRW
TRW Inc's Directors have elected David M Cote, 49, as Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and President. The appointment is effective July 31, 2001.

Mr Cote, who has been serving as the corporation's chief executive officer since February 1, 2001, succeeds Joseph T Gorman. Mr Gorman will resign his position as Chairman of the Board effective July 31.

Mr Cote became TRW's president and chief executive officer in February 2001. Previously he was president and chief operating officer since joining the company in November 1999, when he also was named a director. He joined TRW after 25 years with General Electric, which included top-level positions in manufacturing, finance, marketing, strategic planning, and general management.

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