9 December 2001
Satcoms
Ericsson to Deliver 3G Core Network to Inmarsat
HNS Awards Spaceway Contract to Sun Microsystems
Military
Space
ITT Industries Wins
$125 Million Support Contract with US Army Space Command
Science
Genesis Begins to Sample the Sun
SpaceDev Receives US$ 1.2 Million Microsatellite Contract
Increase
Launch
Services
ISRO Tests Liquid
Propellant Engine
Launches
STS-108 - 12th ISS Flight (UF1) - MPLM
Jason-1, TIMED
Business
Bye-bye Comsat
Thrane and Thrane Drops
Out of Nera SatCom Purchase
Ericsson to Deliver 3G Core Network to Inmarsat
Ericsson has been
selected by Inmarsat Ltd for the development of its next generation core
network for its Broadband Global Area Network (B-GAN), planned for launch in
2004. The contract is valued at US$ 55 million.
Ericsson
as sole supplier for the core network will deliver infrastructure including
routers from its 3G product portfolio, network management solutions and
professional support services.
Ericsson's equipment will provide the
call routing and mobility management functionality for Inmarsat's new B-GAN
ground stations enabling connectivity to the fixed and mobile terrestrial phone
and data networks in conjunction with Inmarsat's service providers.
Inmarsat's B-GAN service will offer third generation (3G) compatible services
including video conferencing to customers over nearly the entire globe.
Inmarsat will focus on providing high-bandwidth services in areas where
existing telecom infrastructure does not exist or cannot support content-rich
applications. This next generation of services will offer data transmission
rates of up to 432 kb/s, significantly increasing the existing traffic
capacity.
In addition, Ericsson will deploy a comprehensive suite of
IP backbone equipment including its industry leading AXI 520-4 series IP
Backbone Routers (based on Juniper Networks M20TM routers) and its internally
developed AXC 711 Tigris access routers as well as Extreme Networks' LAN
Switches. Ericsson also will provide GPRS Gateway Service Nodes (GGSN) from
Ericsson Juniper Networks Mobile IP as well as extensive customer services,
such as integration, support and training.
In July 2000, Ericsson was
awarded a major contract with Inmarsat for delivery of a GPRS core network, IP
backbone and business support system for a precursor to the B-GAN service,
which is due for launch at the end of 2002.
HNS Awards Spaceway Contract to Sun Microsystems
Hughes Network Systems
has selected Sun Microsystems to power its new Spaceway satellite network. As
part of the five-year multimillion agreement, Sun will supply all of the core
Unix-based systems for the ground infrastructure of the program.
Sun systems power numerous satellite systems worldwide,
including HNS and the TRW Satellite Control System being developed for the US
Air Force Space Command.
Sun will provide its Sun Fire 15K servers,
SunFire 6800 Midframe servers, Sun Fire 280R servers, Sun StorEdge T3 arrays,
the Solaris 8 Operating Environment and Forte for Java software. The Sun
solution for Hughes Spaceway includes technology consulting expertise from Sun
Professional Services and learning solutions from Sun Educational Services that
together will help facilitate faster deployment and enhance overall
quality.
ITT Industries Wins $125 Million Support Contract
with US Army Space Command
ITT Industries Inc has been awarded a five-year US$
125 million contract to provide operations and maintenance support and systems
adaptation to the US Army Space Command's Defense Satellite Communications
System (DSCS) Operations Control System Site Support and Services (DOCS4).
Under the DOCS4 contract, ITT will provide critical site
operations and maintenance, system management, network administration,
training, depot repair, supply, and system adaptation in support of the
Government personnel who plan, monitor, and control access to the DSCS
satellites, a critical US defence communications asset. ITT will provide onsite
support at locations including sites in the US, Germany, Japan and at ARSPACE
Headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Contract work will be performed by
ITT's Systems Division.
Genesis Begins to Sample the Sun
NASA's Genesis mission has
extended its special collector arrays to catch atoms from the solar wind. The
atoms it collects, believed to have been part of the solar nebula "cloud" from
which our solar system developed, will help scientists gain a better
understanding of the conditions in the distant past before the Earth and other
planets formed.
Genesis, managed by NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is the agency's first sample return mission since
the last Apollo mission in 1972, and the first ever to return material
collected beyond the Moon.
Genesis orbits a point in space, about 1
million miles from Earth in the direction of the Sun, where the gravities of
Earth and the Sun balance. The spacecraft first opened its outer shell, then
opened its inner science canister to reveal collector arrays. Later, these
arrays fanned out like petals to catch heavier atoms of the solar wind.
The sample of the Sun will be preserved in a special laboratory at NASA's
Johnson Space Center for study by scientists over the next century. It will
help them answer fundamental questions about the exact composition of our star
and the birth of our solar system.
Sample collection will conclude in
April 2004, when the spacecraft begins its return to Earth. In September of
that year, the samples will arrive on Earth in a dramatic helicopter capture.
As the sample-return capsule parachutes toward the ground at the Utah Testing
and Training Range of the US Air Force, specially trained helicopter pilots
will catch the capsule in mid-air to prevent the delicate samples from being
disturbed by the impact of a landing.
Scientists say that the surface
of the Sun, from which the solar wind originates, has preserved the composition
of the era when the solar system formed. Study of Genesis' samples will yield
the average composition of the solar system to greater accuracy. It will also
give clues about the process that led to the incredible diversity of
environments in today's solar system.
Genesis carries four
instruments: bicycle-tire-sized solar-wind collector arrays, made of materials
such as diamond, gold, silicon and sapphire designed to entrap solar wind
particles; an ion monitor, to record the speed, density, temperature and
approximate composition of the solar wind ions; an electron monitor, to make
similar measurements of electrons in the solar wind; and an ion concentrator,
to separate and focus elements like oxygen and nitrogen in the solar wind into
a special collector tile.
SpaceDev Receives US$ 1.2 Million Microsatellite Contract
Increase
SpaceDev has received a contract increase of US$ 1.2
million for its role in the development of NASA's CHIPS mission and spacecraft
for the University of California at Berkeley. This increases the total SpaceDev
CHIPSat contract value to approximately US$ 6.8 million.
CHIPSat is a sophisticated, high-performance 30 kg satellite designed by
SpaceDev to accommodate the 35 kg CHIPS instrument designed by Dr Mark Hurwitz
of Berkeley. Satellites based on this SpaceDev design are now being marketed as
a standard SpaceDev product to government and commercial customers. CHIPSat
will launch in 2002 from the California Vandenberg launch facility onboard a
Boeing Delta II launch vehicle.
Under the NASA-funded contract,
SpaceDev is responsible for the design of the mission, the design, assembly,
and testing of the microsat, assistance with integration of the UC Berkeley
CHIPS instrument, assistance with launch integration on the Boeing Delta-II
launch vehicle, and mission control and operations from the SpaceDev Mission
Control Center.
CHIPSat is the smallest and least expensive spacecraft
funded by NASA and is their first University Explorer. CHIPSat will operate as
an orbiting node on the Internet.
ISRO Tests Liquid Propellant Engine
ISRO, the Indian Space
Research Organisation, has successfully tested an up-rated version of the
liquid propellant Vikas engine at its Liquid Propulsion Test Facilities at
Mahendragiri in Tamilnadu.
Vikas engines are used in
both of India's launch vehicles. They are used in the second stage of the Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). In the Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch
Vehicle (GSLV) they are used in the second stage as well as in the four
strap-on boosters.
The new version of the Vikas engine burns UH25
(Unsymmetrical Di-methyl Hydrazine and hydrazine hydrate) fuel with nitrogen
tetroxide as oxidiser. It features a chamber pressure of 58.5 bar compared to
52.5 bar in the current Vikas engine.
Once the upgraded engine is
qualified, it will be used on the second development flight of the GSLV
scheduled for next year.
STS-108 - 12th ISS Flight (UF1) - MPLM
Launched: 5 December 2001
Site:
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Launcher: Shuttle Endeavour (STS-108)
Orbit: LEO/GEO, apogee: 386 km, perigee: 386 km: inclination: 51.6°
International Number: 2001-054A
Name: ISS UF 1 (Multi Purpose Logistics
Module) on the Shuttle Endeavour (STS-108)
Owner: NASA
This
shuttle mission will ferry a replacement crew to the International Space
Station (ISS). Mission duration will be 11 days.
Crew:
Commander:
Dominic Gorie
Pilot: Mark Kelly
Mission Specialist 1: Linda Godwin
Mission Specialist 2: Daniel Tani
Expedition Four (up): MS 3 Carl Walz
Expedition Four (up): MS 4 Yuri Onufrienko
Expedition Four (up): MS 5
Daniel Bursch
Expedition 3 (down): Frank Culbertson
Expedition 3
(down): Vladimir Dezhurov
Expedition 3 (down): Mikhail Tyurin
Jason-1, TIMED
Launched: 7 December 2001
Site: Vandenberg Air Force
Base, California
Launcher: Delta II
Orbit: LEO, apogee: 1337 km,
perigee: 1337 km
International Number: 2001-055A
Name: Jason-1
Owner: CNES/NASA
Contractor: Alcatel Space
Orbit: LEO, apogee: 625
km, perigee: 625 km
International Number: 2001-055B
Name: TIMED
Owner: NASA
Contractor: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
(JHU/APL)
Jason-1 is an Oceanography mission that is a follow on to
the Topex/Poseidon mission. It will monitor world ocean circulation, study
interactions of the oceans and atmosphere, improve climate predictions and
observe events like El Nino. Jason-1 will measure the height of the Earth's
oceans to an accuracy of 3 to 4 cm. The satellite weighs some 500 kg.
TIMED will study a region in the Earth's atmosphere called the Mesosphere,
Lower Thermosphere/Ionosphere, or "MLTI." Located about 60-180 km above the
Earth, the MLTI is one of the last frontiers for atmospheric exploration.
During its two-year mission, TIMED will study the basic structure of the
MLTI, its chemistry and the flow of energy to and from this layer of the
atmosphere. Scientists will analyse how the MLTI region affects, and is changed
by, the lower atmosphere; how it influences the space near Earth occupied by
low-Earth orbiting satellites; and how events on the Sun affect the MLTI. TIMED
is a joint mission between NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab
(APL).
Bye-bye Comsat
Lockheed Martin has announced its plans to withdraw
from the commercial communications business and to concentrate on the defence
side of its business. As a result, the dismantling and subsequent selling off
of Comsat, which Lockheed Martin acquired last year, will continue until the
business that was Comsat no longer exists.
Lockheed
Martin will lay off some 650 staff from its Lockheed Martin Global
Telecommunications (LMGT) business as it retreats from the commercial
market.
Comsat was formed in the 1960's as the US representative and
shareholder in international satellite operators Intelsat and Inmarsat.
Following the move to privatise these organisations last year, Comsat was
bought by Lockheed Martin for US$ 2.6 billion.
Although Lockheed
Martin's retreat from the commercial market may be seen as a response to the
current shrinking telecommunications market and the expansion of the military
market, Lockheed Martin has long signalled its lack of enthusiasm for the
commercial telecommunications business, even before it bought Comsat.
Lockheed Martin Intersputnik, a joint venture with Intersputnik and the
operator of the LMI 1 satellite, closed its London offices last year and
effectively became a backwater in LMGT. In July of this year, LMGT sold
Comsat's VSAT manufacturing business, which was part of Comsat Laboratories, to
Viasat. LMGT is currently in the process of selling Comsat's mobile satellite
business to Telenor. LMGT's fixed satellite business will probably be the next
to be sold, effectively completing the dismantling of what was Comsat.
One of the few parts of Comsat that Lockheed Martin will retain appears to be
the shareholdings in international satellite operators including Intelsat,
Inmarsat and New Skies.
Thrane and Thrane Drops Out of Nera SatCom Purchase
Thrane
and Thrane has informed Nera that it will not close the agreement relating to
the sale of Nera SatCom AS to Thrane and Thrane. Nera is reported to be
considering legal action.
Nera SatCom will now continue
as a wholly owned Nera Group company.
