22 December 2002
Satcoms
Alcatel Space to Build Koreasat 5
DoD Renews Iridium Contract
NTN Communications
Partners With Mainstream Data to Launch Two-Way Satellite Platform
Telenor Satellite
Services Upgrades Earth Stations
Earth
Observation
NASA Awards Contracts For Remote Sensing Technology
Navigation
NovAtel Awarded Galileo Receiver Contract by ESA
Safer Harbour Operations with
EGNOS
Trimble and
CellStar Co-operate on Mobile Resource Management
Military
Space
Boeing to Build
Third Wideband Gapfiller Satellite
Delta Velocity Selected for SBIR Phase II ChamberCore
Development
Raytheon to Provide Primary Sensor Payloads for
STSS
Science
Galileo Replays Science Data
NASA Testing K9 Rover in New
"Marscape" for Future Missions
No Signal from Contour
Technology
NASA
Tests Future Flight Vehicle Concepts
Launch
Services
Integral
Systems to Provide the Ground System for Spainsat
L-3 Comms to Upgrade Shuttle's
Solid Rocket Booster Electronics
Launches
NSS-6
LatinSat 1, LatinSat 2, Rubin 2, Saudisat 2, UniSat
2
Business
Telenor Satellite Services Relocates US HQ
Products and Services
AG-NAV TrackerNav Tracks and Monitors Crop-Duster
Aircraft
People
Comsat International Names Additions to Executive
Management
Alcatel Space to Build Koreasat 5
(19 December 2002) Alcatel Space has won the
international request for proposals issued by KT Corporation (formerly Korea
Telecom) and the Korean Agency for Defense Development (ADD) to build South
Korea’s Koreasat 5 civil and military communications satellite.
Alcatel Space will supply both the multimission satellite
and its ground control system.
Based on the new-generation Spacebus
4000 platform, Koreasat 5 will feature a state-of-the-art broadband payload,
including new technologies developed within the scope of the Syracuse III
program.
DoD Renews Iridium Contract
(18 December 2002) Iridium Satellite LLC has
announced that the Department of Defense has renewed their existing airtime
contract. This extends the DoD's commitment to using Iridium's global
communication services for an additional year.
The
original US$ 72 million, two-year contract (US$ 36 million per year) was
awarded by the Pentagon through The Defense Information Systems Agency in
December of 2000 and includes options to extend the deal through 2005. The
contract gives unlimited airtime to 20,000 government workers who use the
Iridium network for mobile voice, data and paging capabilities. Boeing
continues to operate the satellite constellation system under contract to
Iridium Satellite LLC.
The Pentagon said in a statement that the
"state-of-the-art" system provides access anywhere on Earth at any time and has
continued to meet all the unique needs and demands placed on it during its DoD
usage in a variety of military and government applications.
NTN Communications Partners With Mainstream Data to Launch
Two-Way Satellite Platform
(19 December 2002) NTN Communications Inc has
partnered with Mainstream Data Inc. to transmit NTN Network programming data to
and from NTN hospitality customer locations via Mainstream Data's new two-way
VSAT satellite network.
The two-way VSAT broadband
satellite platform replaces NTN's existing one-way narrow band FM2 platform,
significantly increasing data transmission capacity and setting the stage for
the expansion of the NTN Network. The two-way platform will also allow for the
creation of a more dynamic and content rich Network and provide a communication
infrastructure upon which NTN will develop and deploy additional products and
services for its hospitality customers, such as digital music, on-site training
and multiple content feeds.
The new VSAT platform combines the ViaSat
two-way LinkStar system with Mainstream's facilities located in Salt Lake City
to deliver larger amounts of data at much higher speeds. Roll out of the new
system to NTN's network of over 3,100 sites in the US begins in early 2003 and
will continue over a period of two years.
ViaSat Inc will supply its
LinkStar Broadband VSATs to Mainstream Data Inc for the network in a contract
award worth more than US$ 6 million. Already a leading provider of broadcast
distribution of streaming news and real-time stock price quotations for its
customers, Mainstream will now expand into interactive IP services across North
America, integrating DVB satellite broadcast, two-way VSAT, and the
Internet.
LinkStar features the fastest two-way networking data rate
among the leading TDMA VSAT systems, with return channel speeds from remote
sites of up to 1.15 Mb/s. In addition, the product's Dynamic Bandwidth
Allocation responds to network traffic changes by increasing or decreasing
information rates, ensuring fast data transfer, but also freeing unused
bandwidth for other network locations. The network will feature a hub in Salt
Lake City, Utah at Mainstream headquarters.
Mainstream Data has been a
key communications partner with NTN since 1987 and has built and operated three
generations of networks for NTN since that time.
Based in Carlsbad,
California, NTN Communications Inc is the parent corporation of the NTN Network
division and Buzztime Entertainment Inc. The NTN Network division, which
focuses on the out-of-home hospitality industries, is comprised of the NTN
Network and NTN Wireless Communications Inc. The NTN Network is the largest out
of home interactive television network in the world. Through NTN's Digital
Interactive Television technology, the NTN Network broadcasts entertainment and
sports programming engaging more than 1.7 million players and reaching more
than 6 million unique customers each month in approximately 3,600 North
American hospitality locations such as TGIFriday's, Damon's, Applebee's,
Buffalo Wild Wings, Bennigan's, and others.
Telenor Satellite Services Upgrades Earth Stations
(18 December 2002) In
order to accommodate the rapidly growing demand for new mobile data
communications services, Telenor Satellite Services has significantly enhanced
the capabilities of its three earth stations that provide global communications
via the Inmarsat satellite system.
The earth stations,
located at Eik in Norway, and in Santa Paula, California and Southbury,
Connecticut in the United States, serve as the link between terrestrial
communications networks and the Inmarsat satellites in orbit 22,300 miles above
the equator.
Upgrades have included the following:
NASA
Awards Contracts For
Remote Sensing Technology
(19 December 2002) NASA has awarded funding for nine
new investigations for technology development of innovative Earth Science
remote-sensing instruments, under the Instrument Incubator Program (IIP), to
support the mission to understand and protect our home planet.
The selected proposals focus on high-priority measurement
areas of Earth's coastal region; Earth's interior processes and motions;
sea-ice thickness and snow cover; pollution effects; and precipitation,
evaporation and cycling of water. A proposal also focused on innovative
technologies supporting measurement concepts from the L1 or L2 Lagrangian
points (the points in space where the opposing pull of the Earth reduces the
effective pull of the Sun; L1 being on the sun-facing side of Earth and L2 on
the opposite or dark side of the Earth).
The main purpose of IIP is to
invest in research and development of new and innovative technologies to
support the NASA Earth Science Enterprise goals and objectives. IIP focuses on
creating mature technologies leading to smaller, less resource-intensive and
less expensive flight instruments that can be built quickly and
efficiently.
The technologies selected include hyperspectral grating
spectrometer technologies for measuring coastal region features and key
chemical constituents in the troposphere that contribute to pollution. Advanced
grating spectrometer technologies will also be studied for measuring
atmospheric temperature and moisture from geosynchronous orbit.
Also
selected are microwave radiometer and advanced radar technologies to measure
sea-ice thickness, snow cover and rainfall, to support understanding cycling of
Earth's fresh water, variation of its climate, and monitoring of volcanoes,
earthquakes and hazardous weather from geosynchronous orbits. An innovative
investigation will explore technologies to place a solar-occultation instrument
at the L2 Lagrangian point, about 1,500,000 km on the dark side of the Earth,
to perform continuous profiling of many trace gases in the Earth's
atmosphere.
Technologies to measure fine deformations of the Earth's
crust, using interferometric synthetic aperture radars, and to measure minute
changes in Earth's gravitation field will also be developed. The objective is
better understanding of natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes,
flooding, sea level change and severe storms.
The selected advanced
technology projects will allow the next generation of orbiting environmental
research satellites to observe Earth's atmosphere, oceans and continents in
minutes and seconds compared to days and hours. The enhanced temporal coverage
compliments the enhanced spatial resolution that has been the hallmark of
NASA's Earth Science remote sensing technologies since the dawn of the space
age.
The investigations selected by NASA's Office of Earth Science
are:
NASA received 28 proposals for technology development efforts and selected nine for funding. The total funding for these investigations, over a period of three years, is approximately US$ 22 million.
NovAtel Awarded Galileo Receiver Contract by ESA
(18 December 2002)
NovAtel Inc has been awarded a 220,000 Euro contract by the European Space
Agency (ESA) for the initial development phase of the Ground Reference Receiver
for the European Galileo program.
Work on this contract
is to be completed by February 2003.
Galileo is the EU's
state-of-the-art Global Navigation Satellite System, which is expected to be
fully operable by 2008 with up to 30 satellites orbiting the earth. NovAtel and
ESA are also working toward replacing this interim agreement with a full
contract worth 500,000 Euros. Work under this additional contract would be
completed by the end of Q4 2003.
The primary objective of the contract
is to develop requirements for the Galileo Ground Reference Receiver (GRR). A
secondary objective is to confirm and verify the specified performance by
creating a software model of the receiver. NovAtel will also create a top-level
structural design for the GRR. The GRR program is anticipated to subsequently
progress through prototyping, full-scale development and qualification, and
through to production. GRR receivers will be fielded at each Galileo reference
site to provide constellation monitoring information for the Galileo control
network.
NovAtel is the principle supplier of GPS receivers to ground
reference networks around the globe. Currently NovAtel supplies receivers to
national satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) including the US WAAS,
European EGNOS, Japanese MSAS, and Chinese SNAS. The Company anticipates that
as subsequent phases go forward, NovAtel should be able to offer Galileo
upgrades to these GPS ground reference networks world-wide.
Safer Harbour Operations with EGNOS
(16 December 2002) It will soon be much safer
for ships to enter and move around narrow harbours with help from a system that
will enable accurate navigation information to compliment radar signals.
Ships currently enter harbours relying on just radar images
and verbal information from the team on the adjacent tug boats. Recently a
harbour in Hamburg, Germany tested a new system called MARLET (the Maritime
LOPOS EGNOS Test Bed) developed by Lopos Technologies GmbH, who initiated the
project with sponsorship from the European Space Agency (ESA).
The
demonstration of MARLET showed the usefulness of EGNOS (the European
Geostationary Navigation Overlay System) and Galileo for vessel operations in
the harbour of Hamburg and on the river Elbe. MARLET greatly improves the
quality of the AIS standard - the Automatic Information System for
international shipping - which is driven by the Global Navigation Satellite
System (GNSS).
AIS is an independent, self-organising system. AIS
equipment onboard each (commercial) ship permanently broadcasts a vessel
identifier, direction, speed and other information to all other ships and
coastal stations within reach of a maritime VHF communications link.
When implementing EGNOS quality standards on all positioning sensors in AIS,
one of the sources of uncertainty in AIS is eliminated.
With accurate
(better than 1 metre) GNSS-positioning information, combined with a controlled
communication link, it is possible to have a Vessel Traffic Management and
Information System (VTMIS) in which ultimately radar and electronic chart
images can be combined, for the benefit of safer manoeuvres in confined
waters.
A number of test runs aboard tugs have been performed. In
early December the large passenger ship Maxim Gorkiy was supported with EGNOS
technology during the most demanding port manoeuvre: tug-assisted turning and
docking. In addition, a synthetic aperture GNSS antenna has been developed,
showing much improved position accuracy.
Follow-on studies are to
elaborate a standard for an enhanced AIS system that will be usable for harbour
operations and also probably inland waterway navigation.
Trimble and CellStar Co-operate on Mobile Resource Management
(17 December 2002)
Trimble and CellStar Corporation have signed a logistics and distribution
agreement for mobile resource management solutions.
Under the agreement, CellStar will distribute Trimble's Telvisant Mobile
Resource Management (MRM) System hardware, including the CrossCheck family of
Global Positioning System (GPS) based mobile communications products which
utilise General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Cellular Digital Packet Data
(CDPD) and when available CDMA2000 1xRTT wireless data services.
The
contract covers logistics and distribution services, customer-specific
customisation of the CrossCheck units, kit configuration, inventory management
as well as fulfilment to customers, vehicle manufacturers and dealers on a
global basis.
Trimble's Telvisant system offers real-time asset
tracking and monitoring for businesses and government agencies. It is designed
to meet the needs of a broad range of users, including ready-mix concrete
producers, refuse haulers, utility and telecommunications companies, government
agencies, rental fleet owners, heavy equipment operators, transportation and
logistics providers, and field service and repair companies. The system offers
customers a complete solution that connects vehicles and mobile workers to the
enterprise for fleet and workforce management, telematics and vehicle
security.
Telvisant uses GPS technology to locate a vehicle or mobile
worker, wireless technology to transmit the information to Trimble's data
centre and the Internet to provide complete mobile resource management from a
user's PC. Trimble's solution provides the in-vehicle hardware, a wireless
gateway, applications for mobile asset management, a secure data centre
infrastructure and wireless service. Trimble also offers a range of vehicle
mounted sensors to record mission critical business events. By gaining
in-depth, real-time data including - location, speed, time-of-arrival, time of
departure, duration of stay, event reporting and many other types of
information - customers can gain significant improvements in efficiencies and
profitability from their mobile assets.
The system offers a variety of
hosted applications, including sophisticated mapping, two-way text messaging,
and detailed management reporting of fleet activity. Telvisant is designed to
be used stand-alone, or in conjunction with popular dispatch applications.
Trimble also offers the Telvisant Software Developer's Kit (SDK) and XML
interface for integrating custom vertical applications or enterprise systems.
In addition, the service can provide wireless carriers, telematics providers,
and vehicle manufacturers, with branded Internet applications for their
subscribers.
Boeing to Build Third Wideband Gapfiller Satellite
(20 December 2002)
Boeing Integrated Defense Systems has been awarded a US Air Force contract
option to build a third satellite in the Wideband Gapfiller Satellite, or WGS,
program.
Each WGS military communications satellite
provides the United States and its allies with increased space-based
communications capability that augments current Defense Satellite
Communications System, or DSCS, and Global Broadcast Service operations.
Boeing received funding to build the first two satellites in January 2002
for launches scheduled in 2004. The third satellite is scheduled to launch in
2005. The WGS contract includes options for as many as six Boeing 702
satellites and associated spacecraft and payload ground control equipment that
is jointly funded with the US Army. With the current option for the WGS F3
satellite, the total value of the contract is now approximately US$ 660
million.
Delta Velocity Selected for SBIR Phase II ChamberCore
Development
(19
December 2002) Delta Velocity Corporation has been awarded a Phase II contract
with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirkland Air Force Base in
Albuquerque, New Mexico to design and develop graphite composite payload
fairings for small launch vehicles using a structural technique called
ChamberCore design.
The contract was awarded on August
1, 2002 under a federal initiative, the Small Business Innovative Research
program, which funds research and development efforts at small companies. The
value of the contract award is US$ 937,500 over 2 years.
Under the
terms of the contract, Delta Velocity will support two efforts related to
ChamberCore structure development and resulting acoustic attenuation during
launch. In support of the VibroAcoustic Launch Protection Experiment (VALPE)
mission, which is to test a variety of experimental technologies for reducing
the acoustic and vibration environment in which satellites are exposed during
launch, the company will design and develop the ChamberCore payload fairing
that is expected to result in a lower-cost, less resource-intensive production
method applicable to a variety of structural components. The fairing will be
approximately 17 inches in diameter by five feet long and will not separate
from the launch vehicle during the suborbital flight. During the flight,
instrumentation on board the vehicle will measure the structural performance
and acoustic attenuation properties of the ChamberCore fairing. VALPE is
funded, in part, by the Air Force's Space Test Program office and will fly from
NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.
In addition to supporting the VALPE
mission, Delta Velocity will design and build a second, larger payload fairing
that is more representative of structures used on space launch vehicles. It
will also be test-flown within the 2-year contract period. The larger fairing,
about 60 inches in diameter and roughly 10 feet in length, will be designed to
separate in flight as is required for satellite deployment. Work for both of
these efforts will be performed at the company's Purcellville, Virginia,
manufacturing facilities and at the Air Force Research Lab at Kirtland AFB.
The current contract is a follow-on to a Phase I effort awarded to Delta
Velocity in May, 2001. Under that contract, valued at US$ 99,990, Delta
Velocity developed the basic analysis and fabrication techniques necessary to
cost- effectively produce ChamberCore components.
Raytheon to Provide Primary Sensor Payloads for STSS
(18 December 2002)
Raytheon Company is making preparations to provide the primary sensor payload
for the Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) missile defence system,
formerly known as Space-Based Infrared System Low (SBIRS Low), to prime
contractor Northrop Grumman. Both companies have signed a contract valued at
approximately US$ 200 million for the delivery of sensor payloads.
As the prime contractor for the STSS program, Northrop
Grumman was previously awarded an US$ 868 million contract from the Missile
Defense Agency (MDA) to begin development of the STSS system. The contract
defines the efforts associated with Block 06 of the STSS development that
provide the initial space and ground segment assets.
The Raytheon STSS
sensor payload was developed for the continual observation of ballistic
missiles in the boost, midcourse, and re-entry phases of flight. Composed of an
acquisition sensor, a tracking sensor, and processing subsystem, the STSS
sensor payload will provide protection from evolving threats to national
security. These state-of-the-art components have successfully demonstrated
performance in thermal vacuum tests against simulated targets.
Galileo Replays Science Data
(17 December 2002) NASA's Galileo spacecraft has begun
transmitting high-priority scientific information that was collected and stored
on its tape recorder during the orbiter's early-November dash by Jupiter, which
brought it closer to the planet than ever before.
Damage
from naturally strong radiation near Jupiter had left the tape recorder
inoperable for weeks. Galileo's flight team traced the problem to a
light-emitting diode in the electronics controlling the motor drive, and then
gradually and carefully completed a successful long-distance repair job.
Playback and transmission began late last week, after tape movements
earlier in the week positioned the tape to start the download with the data of
greatest scientific interest. That information is from a period starting on
November 4, when Galileo was beginning to get closer to Jupiter than the moon
Io's orbit. It ends when the spacecraft shut down its instruments on November 5
as part of a precautionary standby reaction to other radiation-induced problems
with the spacecraft's computer shortly after passing the inner moon
Amalthea.
The recovery was achieved by running a current through the
damaged diode to anneal, or repair, radiation-caused damage. The first
annealing attempt of six hours produced barely discernible improvement. Three
additional treatments, for a total of 83 more hours of annealing treatment,
produced progressive improvements, to the point that the tape recorder can run
for about an hour at a time. A fifth treatment produced no additional gain.
However, normal playback runs the tape recorder for only a few minutes at a
time, so the improvement appears sufficient.
The flight team plans to
continue playback until mid-January, the scheduled end of Galileo's mission
operations.
Galileo's tape recorder became critical to the mission's
strategy for handling science data after the spacecraft's main antenna failed
to open fully during the journey from launch in 1989 to arrival at Jupiter in
1995. Most information from onboard science instruments has been recorded onto
tape during the busy days when the spacecraft has flown near one of Jupiter's
moons. There have been over 30 such flybys since 1995. The recorded data has
been played back slowly for transmission to Earth via Galileo's smaller
secondary antenna during the weeks and months before each subsequent flyby.
Galileo has operated five years longer than its original prime mission and
has received more than four times the cumulative dose of harmful radiation it
was designed to withstand. Last month's encounter took the orbiter nearly twice
as close to Jupiter as it had ever been before, and exposed it to the strongest
radiation it has yet experienced. In particular, the spacecraft entered the
most intense region of a trapped proton belt and was exposed to 40 times the
proton radiation of any single previous passage close to Jupiter, probably more
than the rest of the mission combined.
The diode that radiation
apparently damaged in the tape recorder is a gallium-arsenide semiconductor
component that emits light. The motor-drive control has three of them. Light
from them shines through windows in a rotating wheel onto detectors on the
other side of the wheel. That set-up senses the turning of the wheel and feeds
digital logic that controls drive signals for the motor.
The damage
apparently came from high-energy protons from Jupiter's radiation belt
displacing atoms in the semiconductor's crystalline molecular lattice. Passing
a current through the diode for hours serves as a way for electron flow to
cause some of the displaced atoms to shift back to their original lattice
positions.
Galileo has nearly depleted its supply of the propellant
needed for pointing its antenna toward Earth and controlling its flight path.
While still controllable, it has been put on a course for impact into Jupiter
next September. The manoeuvre prevents the risk of Galileo drifting to an
unwanted impact with the moon Europa, where it has discovered evidence of a
subsurface ocean that is of interest as a possible habitat for extraterrestrial
life.
NASA
Testing K9 Rover in New
"Marscape" for Future Missions
(18 December 2002) NASA scientists and engineers are
testing new technologies using a K9 rover in a newly built "Marscape" test
facility in preparation for future missions to Mars.
Testing is being conducted at NASA Ames Research Center in California's Silicon
Valley in a 3/4-acre "Marscape" that has been designed to resemble the terrain
on Mars. Constructed at a cost of about US$ 74,000, the test facility
incorporates the environmental and geological features of Mars that hold the
greatest scientific interest. The Marscape features a dry lakebed and outflow
channel, a meteorite impact crater, a volcanic zone containing a dry
hydrothermal spring and an area that scientists describe as "chaotic
terrain."
Scientists hope to utilise new robotic technologies during
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission anticipated in 2009.
Developed jointly at NASA Ames and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the
K9 rover is a six-wheeled, solar-powered rover weighing 65 kg that measures 1.6
m high. The K9 rover is modelled after a rover named "FIDO" (Field Integrated
Design and Operations) developed at JPL about four years ago.
The
rover's avionics, instrumentation, and its autonomy software were developed at
NASA Ames. The rover carries a variety of instruments on board, including a
compass, an inertial measurement unit and three pairs of monochromatic cameras
used for navigation and instrument placement. The rover also carries a pair of
high-resolution, colour stereo cameras and the CHAMP, an arm-mounted, focusable
microscopic camera developed at the University of Colorado. The rover's stereo
cameras create a 3-D virtual map of the exploration site that scientists use to
help navigate the rover to its intended target.
Due to Mars' distance
from Earth, even with commands being transmitted at the speed of light, it
currently takes three Martian days to complete the process of directing a rover
to a targeted rock and placing the instrument on the rock to begin scientific
analysis of it. Scientists at NASA Ames hope to be able to accomplish that
objective in a single day, thereby increasing the efficiency of obtaining
science data in future missions.
To increase the versatility of the
software, scientists at NASA Ames, JPL and Carnegie Mellon University are
developing a universal architecture for robotics software named CLARAty, funded
by the Mars Technology Program, to develop robotics capabilities at NASA
centres and universities for future missions.
The K9 rover project's
annual cost of approximately US$ 1 million is funded jointly by the Intelligent
Systems Project under the Computing, Information and Communications Technology
(CICT) Program administered by NASA's Office of Aerospace Technology, and by
the Mars Technology Program, administered by the Office of Space Science, NASA
Headquarters, Washington.
No
Signal from Contour
(20 December 2002)
Efforts to communicate with Contour ended shortly after noon today without a
signal from the NASA spacecraft, and mission managers say they will not try to
contact the silent probe again.
Launched July 3, 2002,
Contour fell silent after firing its onboard STAR 30 solid-propellant rocket
motor on August 15, during a manoeuvre to boost the spacecraft from a parking
orbit around Earth. Ground-based telescope images taken shortly after showed
three objects near Contour's expected path, indicating Contour had broken up
near the scheduled end of the burn. Without data from the spacecraft, however,
the mission team could only infer whether Contour was fatally damaged. Attempts
to contact the craft in the weeks after the anomaly proved unsuccessful.
Contour team members planned the final contact effort for this week, when
they believed the spacecraft's multidirectional pancake beam antenna would be
better positioned to receive signals from Earth. On December 17, and again on
the 20th, mission operators at APL sent several "transmit" commands through
NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas toward the suspected location of the
largest piece, thought to be the bulk of the spacecraft, about 68 million
kilometres from Earth. After 16 total hours of sending and watching, no signal
came back.
NASA
Tests Future Flight
Vehicle Concepts
(18 December 2002) A hybrid rocket carrying futuristic
space vehicle concepts completed its first flight December 18 from the NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility.
The rocket, built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, New Orleans, was used to
launch a NASA designed payload containing three test articles.
The
purpose of the Suborbital Aerodynamic Reentry Experiments (SOREX-2) payload was
to develop new high-speed flight test and control methods. These techniques may
be applied to novel designs for high-speed flight and next generation planetary
entry technology.
The payload, a joint project between Ames and
Wallops, included a 'wave rider' flying wedge, a linear aerobrake (or
hypersonic parachute), and a Slotted Compression Ramp Probe (SCRAMP), a super
stable planetary re-entry probe. The wedge is about 127 cm long and was to free
fly like a glider after deployment.
The launch is the first test
flight of a large hybrid propulsion system. Lockheed Martin's Michoud
Operations designed and built the 18 meters long rocket to demonstrate that
hybrid propulsion technology offers a low cost solution for delivering
payloads. The 0.6 m diameter rocket used liquid oxygen and solid fuel to
provide a thrust of 60,000 pounds and achieved an altitude of 70 km.
Lockheed Martin signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA Marshall Space Flight
Center in 1999 to develop, test and launch the hybrid sounding rocket. The
program goal is to develop a single-stage hybrid propulsion system capable of
replacing existing two- and three-stage sounding rockets.
Integral Systems to Provide the Ground System for Spainsat
(18 December 2002)
Madrid-based GMV has awarded the Integral Systems Inc a contract to provide the
primary and backup control systems for the Spainsat satellite. This satellite
is being procured by Hisdesat from Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) and will be
operated by Hisdesat.
The Spainsat Satellite control
system will incorporate several elements of Integral Systems' Epoch 2000
product line, including the Epoch 2000 command and control software and the
TRECS (Transponder Reconfiguration System) payload reconfiguration software.
TRECS is a recent addition to the Integral Systems product line, which was
first introduced in 1992 as the world's first Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS)
command and control software suite for satellite and fleet operators.
The Spainsat Control Software will be built in close co-operation between the
European subsidiary of Integral Systems and GMV SA.
L-3
Comms to Upgrade
Shuttle's Solid Rocket Booster Electronics
(19 December 2002) L-3 Communications' Space &
Navigation division has been awarded an order by United Space Alliance (USA) to
retrofit the existing Integrated Electronics Assembly (IEA) for the Space
Shuttle's Solid Rocket Booster (SRB).
The initial value
of the contract is US$ 22 million; with follow-on awards that could increase
the total contract value to US$ 27 million.
The IEA is the primary
communications link between the SRB and the Shuttle's Orbiter. The IEA provides
the control electronics for the SRB during the launch, ascent, separation,
re-entry and recovery phases of the mission. This upgrade consists of the
replacement of the IEA Internal Harness Assemblies.
NSS-6
Launched: 17 December 2002
Site: CSG Kourou, French Guiana
Launcher:
Ariane 44L
Orbit: GEO, 95° E
International Number: 2002-057A
Name: NSS-6
Owner: New Skies Satellite
Contractor: Lockheed Martin
Commercial Space Systems
NSS-6 is a commercial communications
satellite, owned and operated by New Skies Satellites. It is a Ku band
satellite with Ka band uplink capabilities, providing fully interactive access
to high-speed Internet and other multimedia communications. Additionally, it
will provide direct-to-home broadcasting services as well as the full
complement of traditional enterprise telecommunications services across a large
coverage area stretching from the eastern Mediterranean and Southern Africa to
Australia, Japan and Korea.
The satellite, based on the Lockheed's
A2100AX bus, carries more than 60 high-power 36 MHz -equivalent Ku band
transponders that can be flexibly allocated, in-orbit, to any of six broad
beams covering India, China, the Middle East (with Southern African spot
coverage), Australia, Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. Additionally, up to 15
highly linearised transponders can be assigned to each of the six beams to
respond to changing market demand. Each Ku band beam is formed by an
independent high-gain antenna system, offering 51-53 dBW in key markets.
NSS-6 also has 12 super-high-gain Ka band uplink spot beams, allowing data
rates of at least 1 Mb/s from antennas as small as 75 - 90 cm located at
customer sites. These high-speed, high-performance Ka band uplinks are
cross-strapped to the broad Ku band downlink beams, efficiently handling the
asymmetric levels of traffic that characterise Internet networks.
LatinSat 1, LatinSat 2, Rubin 2, Saudisat 2, UniSat 2
Launched: 20 December 2002
Site: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
Launcher: Dnepr
International Number: 2002-058A
Orbit: LEO
Name: Unisat 2
Owner:
Rome University
Contractor: Rome University
International Number:
2002-058B
Orbit: LEO
Name: LatinSat 1
International Number:
2002-058C
Orbit: LEO
Name: LatinSat 2
International Number:
2002-058D
Orbit: LEO
Name: Saudisat 2
International Number:
2002-058E
Orbit: LEO
Name: Rubin 2
Telenor
Satellite Services
Relocates US HQ
(17
December 2002) Telenor Satellite Services has completed the move to its new
United States headquarters facility located in Rockville, Maryland, in the
heart of Maryland's "I- 270 technology corridor."
Telenor Satellite Services' new US headquarters is located in the Tower
Building, a technologically and environmentally advanced office building,
located on the Tower Oaks campus at I-270 and Wootton Parkway in Rockville,
Maryland. Telenor now occupies more than 38,000 square feet of workspace in the
top two floors of the 10-story facility.
In addition to its new US
offices in Rockville, Maryland, Telenor owns and operates major earth station
facilities, used for sending and receiving communications via satellite, in
Norway, Connecticut, and California.
Telenor Satellite Services Inc
originally was a business unit of Comsat Corporation and was acquired by
Telenor from Lockheed Martin in January of 2002.
AG-NAV TrackerNav Tracks and Monitors Crop-Duster Aircraft
(17 December 2002)
AG-NAV Inc, a major supplier of aerial application control equipment and
navigational products, has developed a satellite tracking and monitoring
solution for aerial spraying using EMS Technologies Inc's EMS PDT-100 Satellite
Packet Data Terminal.
The TrackerNav solution allows
people on the ground, such as fleet owners and government officials, to use
satellite technology to track and monitor aircraft engaged in aerial spraying
for agricultural, forestry and mosquito- control applications.
Using
the TrackerNav solution, owners of private fleets and government officials can
keep track of crop duster aircraft, and can monitor where and when the aircraft
sprays chemicals. The PDT-100 satellite terminal relays aircraft position and
spray data to the ground using the MSAT-1 satellite.
There has been
increased interest in monitoring aerial-spraying aircraft since the events of
September 11, when all crop dusters in the United States were grounded for two
weeks. The industry anticipates new regulations regarding crop dusting,
especially near populated areas. The TrackerNav solution using the PDT-100
offers the increased control and monitoring that are expected to be needed in
response to these new regulations.
At the current time, radio offers
some localised monitoring of aircraft, but nothing close to the continental
coverage offered through the EMS satellite terminal. The PDT-100 allows
aircraft to be monitored and tracked anywhere in North and Central America,
including up to 250 miles off the coast. In addition to improved safety, the
solution offers increased fleet efficiencies by providing the location of
aircraft and data on when and where the aircraft sprayed. Using GPS (global
positioning system) information, fleets can establish boundaries beyond which
chemicals should not be sprayed. The PDT-100 monitors the aircraft, and if the
plane strays from the desired area, the sprayer could be turned off remotely
and automatically. The system also has obvious applications for security, as
the PDT-100 offers the ability to indicate when an aircraft has taken off and
to track the aircraft in the case of theft or a hijacking.
As a
business solution, the technology allows fleets to prove how much spray was
delivered and precisely where. In addition to providing precise records for
billing purposes, the satellite tracking provides accurate records for
responding to EPA regulations.
AG-NAV has already demonstrated the
TrackerNav solution to government officials and private fleets, which have
responded positively to the system. The solution currently is only installed on
restricted aircraft.
Comsat International Names Additions to Executive Management
(19 December 2002)
Comsat International (CI) has announced appointments to its executive
management team, effective January 1, 2003. H Brian Thompson has been named
chairman of CI, and George M Kappaz, current chairman of CI's holding company,
Comsat International Holdings LLC (CIH), has been appointed CI's president and
chief executive officer.
H Brian Thompson, who heads his
own private equity investment and advisory firm, Universal Telecommunications
Inc, was previously chairman and CEO of Global TeleSystems Group Inc. He also
served as chairman and CEO of Virginia-based LCI International Inc. from 1991
through 1998, and is widely credited for leading the transformation of a
money-losing, debt-laden, US$ 200 million long distance company into a US$ 2
billion national, top competitor ranked among Fortune's 100 fastest-growing
companies. In 1998, Thompson merged LCI, with an enterprise value of more than
US$ 5 billion, with Qwest.
A former executive vice president of MCI
Communications Corporation from 1981 to 1990, Thompson had responsibility for
the company's eight operating divisions, including MCI International.
George M Kappaz is the current chairman of CI's holding company, Comsat
International Holdings LLC (CIH), a privately held telecommunications
investment company. CIH acquired Comsat International from Lockheed Martin
Corporation in October 2002.
Kappaz has extensive experience
acquiring, building, and managing companies world-wide, including successes in
Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. He
has significant international general management and transaction experience,
having led ventures which have raised billions of dollars in debt and equity
financing.
In 1994 Kappaz founded KMR Power Corporation, a global
owner and operator of energy projects, where he served as President and CEO. He
led the company from inception through its successful sale in 2000.
