23 February 2003
Satcoms
Eutelsat Inaugurates New Italian Teleport for Broadband
Services
Gilat
Continues Business Expansion in Latin America and Caribbean
iDirect Completes Transition and is
Now Focused on Providing VSAT Technology
Loral Resumes Construction of Wildblue-1
ViaSat Receives
Production Order from Connexion by Boeing
Earth
Observation
Artemis Relays First Images for Envisat
Ball Aerospace Wins NASA Sensing
Contracts
Integral Systems' Skylight Satellite Image System Purchased by
NASA
Science
ESA's Rosetta mission, a Status Report
NASA Selects Next Medium-Class
Explorer Mission
Manned
Space
Aura
Delivers Prototype Near Field Data Communication System to NASA
Raytheon Awarded US$
79 Million NASA Contract to Support Astronaut Training
Technology
Lockheed
Martin Awarded Patent for Solid Rocket Nozzle Throat Technology
Launch
Services
Sea Launch
Ready to Fly
SpaceX Performs First Rocket Engine Firing
Telesat Chooses ILS Proton
Again
Launches
Launch Schedule
Business
DirecTV Latin America Files for Chapter 11 Reorganisation
Gilat
Announces Closing of Debt Restructuring Plan
Products and Services
EMS Technologies and Stratos Partner to Sell Solutions to
the Trucking Industry
Globalstar Introduces New Fixed Satellite Phone Unit
Norsat to Debut
Next-Generation NewsLink SNG Terminal at NAB
Remote Satellite Carrier Line-ups on
a Wi-Fi PDA
Stratos Announces High Speed Data Services in Fifth Ocean
Region
People
Management Changes at DirecTV Latin America
Eutelsat Inaugurates New Italian Teleport for Broadband
Services
(21 March
2003) Eutelsat has officially inaugurated its new multimedia platform in Turin,
Italy. Commercialised by Skylogic Italia, Eutelsat’s Turin-based
subsidiary, the platform is equipped for providing a full range of value-added
broadband services for businesses, public administrations, service and content
providers.
The new teleport facility, based in the city
of Turin in north-west Italy, is connected to the Internet backbone through one
of Italy’s largest Internet nodes. It is operated in collaboration with
Euphon, a leading international production and multimedia company that offers
audio-visual facilities and production and post-production services for
broadcasters and corporate users.
The platform is fully configured to
provide users with one-way and two-way services including live streaming for
business TV and corporate networks, multicasting of video and IP data, website
updating and remote monitoring. It is connected to Eutelsat’s Atlantic
Bird 1 and W3 satellites that provide seamless coverage over a vast region
stretching from North America to Europe, North Africa and central Asia. The
gateway is also configured for Eutelsat’s D-Star two-way broadband service
that is fully compatible with the DVB-RCS open standard for satellite-based
interactive networks. D-Star was recently used in conjunction with the Turin
platform for providing voice, data and Internet access services on the island
of Stromboli for Italy’s Civil Protection Agency during a period of
intense volcanic activity on the island.
Gilat Continues Business Expansion in Latin America and
Caribbean
(19 March
2003) Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd has completed deployment of a fixed rural
satellite telephony network for Empresa Nicaraguense de Telecomunicaciones
(Enitel) to serve 170 communities throughout Nicaragua. The network is the
largest known deployment of satellite rural telephony in Nicaragua.
The new Enitel network, based on Gilat's DialAw@y IP VSAT
product, serves public payphone and fax kiosks, supporting the needs of
agricultural workers and other inhabitants of Nicaragua's most remote villages
who were living without basic communications services. Nearly 100 of the VSAT
units are operated using solar power. Under terms of the agreement, Gilat is
providing Enitel with equipment and turnkey implementation of the VSAT network.
In the future, Enitel expects to use the network to provide high-speed Internet
connectivity to many of those sites.
Gilat has also been selected by
International Satellite Teleport (Intersat) to provide a 200-site broadband
satellite communications network in Haiti. Intersat expects to use Gilat's
Skystar Advantage VSAT equipment and central satellite hub system to provide
shared-hub services to companies in a variety of industries, as well as
government agencies.
iDirect Completes Transition and is Now Focused on Providing VSAT
Technology
(17
March 2003) iDirect Technologies, a privately held company that develops
broadband IP hardware and software that enables the fastest, most reliable
bi-directional Internet connections via satellite, has successfully
transitioned its strategy to focus exclusively on providing premiere VSAT
technology.
The company has been providing VSAT
technology and is well known for its responsive customer support. To take
further advantage of these qualities, the company has made a decision to
migrate its service business to several iDirect technology enabled
partners.
iDirect Technologies designs, develops, and markets
satellite-based broadband access solutions targeted at the enterprise,
government, carrier and educational sectors that have the need for fast,
flexible, and geographically dispersed two-way internet/intranet
access.
Loral Resumes Construction of Wildblue-1
(17 March 2003) Space
Systems/Loral has resumed construction of WildBlue-1 for WildBlue
Communications Inc of Denver, Colorado.
WildBlue
recently announced that Intelsat, Liberty Satellite and Technology Inc, the
National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC), Kleiner Perkins Caufield
and Byers and David Drucker, WildBlue's chairman, agreed to invest US$ 156
million in the company, which will allow WildBlue to enter commercial service
in 2004 and complete its investment in the WildBlue-1 satellite.
WildBlue-1 is designed to provide consumers and small businesses in the United
States fast and affordable two-way wireless Internet access using a mini-dish
antenna. WildBlue-1 is currently scheduled to launch aboard an Ariane 5 launch
vehicle.
WildBlue-1 will generate more than 10 kW of power at
beginning of life, and will cover North America with 41 overlapping Ka band
spot beams. Eight tracking antennas on board the satellite provide precision
pointing of the beams over the contiguous United States. The 4.7 metric ton
spacecraft will operate from the 109.2° W orbital position.
WildBlue-1 is based on SS/L's 1300 satellite platform and is designed to have a
useful life of over 12 years.
ViaSat Receives Production Order from Connexion by Boeing
(19 March 2003) ViaSat
Inc has received a production order from Connexion by Boeing for continued
development and delivery of more than 100 airborne receive and transmit
subsystems (ARTS). The engineering development will enable the ARTS design to
be compatible with the next-generation antenna subsystem under development by
Mitsubishi Electric Corp for Connexion by Boeing.
For
the past two years ViaSat has been developing and delivering receiver and
transmitter subsystems under contract to Connexion by Boeing. Ongoing service
demonstrations on international carriers Lufthansa and British Airways are
realising the vision of creating an "Internet connection in the sky." The
timing of these airborne modem next-generation antenna modifications and
deliveries enable aircraft installations early next year in preparation for
Connexion by Boeing commercial service launch in 2004.
The Connexion
by Boeing system will augment existing in-flight entertainment systems by
providing real-time, two-way data and audio and video entertainment services,
fulfilling the modern business traveller's need to stay connected to the
office, the Internet, corporate intranets and news and financial information.
Leisure passengers also benefit from having additional choices for how to spend
their time during flight.
Artemis Relays First Images for Envisat
(18 March 2003) The first satellite-relayed
images from Envisat have been received, via the Artemis data-relay spacecraft
in geostationary orbit, at ESA's data processing centre at ESRIN, near
Rome.
For Artemis, the Advanced Relay Technology
Mission, the image transmission caps a historic, 18-month recovery operation
that brought the spacecraft to its assigned geostationary orbit after a July
2001 launch that left Artemis stranded in an orbit far lower than intended.
Despite the lack of sufficient conventional propellant to raise the
spacecraft's orbit, ESA engineers used Artemis' groundbreaking ion propulsion
system, combined with innovative operations of its chemical thrusters, and
succeeded in raising the satellite to its nominal geostationary position at
21.5° East.
Artemis carries payloads supporting land mobile
communications, navigation systems and data relay systems. The spacecraft
operates at S band (2 GHz), Ka band (26 GHz) and optical frequencies. Artemis
and Envisat communicate at Ka band frequencies.
Setting up the
operational data relay system in the Ka band between Artemis and Envisat is a
first for Europe. The system proves the space qualifications of new
technologies and operational procedures, along with demonstrating the complex
software used in both the ground and space segments. It also shows the
usefulness of data relay payloads.
Once testing of the inter-satellite
link is completed, Envisat will transmit about half of its sensor data through
Artemis straight to the Envisat data processing centre at ESRIN, starting at
the end of April. Data from various instruments will continue to be downloaded
to the Envisat ground station and data processing centre in Kiruna, Sweden, but
the addition of the data relay satellite offers several important new
capabilities to the Envisat data network.
The Kiruna ground station
can "see" the satellite for about 10 minutes of Envisat's 100-minute orbit, and
for 10 daily orbits. Because of its orbital position above Envisat, Artemis can
remain in contact with Envisat on almost all its 14 daily orbits, and for
longer periods.
Shifting a large portion of Envisat's downloads to
Artemis for relay to ESRIN will ease the workload at Kiruna and thus reduce the
time taken in processing information from Envisat's sensors to within three
hours of the initial data acquisition. The use of Artemis will also enable ESA
to increase the amount of data acquired by Envisat anywhere in the world,
particularly in the case of the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR)
instrument, increase the flexibility of the mission's ground segment, and
provide a back-up in the event of a problem with the onboard recorders, which
will improve mission reliability.
Envisat recently marked its first
year in orbit. Launched on 28 February 2002 from Europe's spaceport in French
Guiana, it is the largest and most capable Earth observation satellite ever
built. Its suite of 10 sensors is designed to provide a comprehensive view of
the Earth's oceans, land, atmosphere and ice caps.
The optical data
relay system will be used between Artemis and the French Earth observation
satellite, SPOT 4, starting in April. In 2005 the Automatic Transfer Vehicle
will start using a regular data relay service and in 2006 (to be confirmed)
Columbus, the European element of the International Space Station, will
establish data relay links to Artemis for nearly five hours a day.
Ball Aerospace Wins NASA Sensing Contracts
(21 March 2003) Ball
Aerospace and Technologies Corp has been awarded three contracts to perform
technology development of innovative Earth science remote-sensing instruments
under NASA's Instrument Incubator Program (IIP). NASA reviewed 28 proposals for
this technology development before awarding nine contracts.
Ball Aerospace staff consultant Tom Kampe was awarded a
contract as principal investigator on the Spaceborne Infrared Atmospheric
Sounder for Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (SIRAS-G). The SIRAS-G contract
demonstrates technology that could form the basis of the Hyperspectral
Environmental Suite, a sensor suite being procured to replace the atmospheric
sounder instrument that is now part of the Geostationary Operational
Environmental Satellites (GOES) system. GOES is a system of satellites that
provide observations of the Earth's weather and environment.
Ball
Aerospace teamed with Dr R Steven Nerem of the University of Colorado on the
second award, the Interferometric Range Transceiver (IRT) for Measuring
Temporal Gravity Variations. For IRT, Ball Aerospace is developing a
high-precision inter-spacecraft ranging instrument designed to be flown as the
follow-on to the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment mission that is
currently on-orbit.
On the third winning effort, Ball Aerospace
supported a Goddard Space Flight Center team led by Dr Scott Janz on the
Geostationary Spectrograph (GeoSpec) for Earth and Atmospheric Science
Applications. Ball Aerospace will procure and package the 2-D focal planes,
design the interface electronics, and test the detector subsystem.
The
NASA Instrument Incubator Program supports development of new and innovative
technologies for the Earth Science Enterprise. The program focuses on
technologies leading to smaller, less resource-intensive, and less expensive
flight instruments.
Integral Systems' Skylight Satellite Image System Purchased by
NASA
(19 March
2003) NASA Stennis Space Center has purchased Integral Systems Inc's Skylight
Direct Broadcast Ground Terminal for receiving and processing satellite Earth
science data. Using an existing NASA antenna, the system includes a receiver as
well as data processing, storage, and analysis software.
NASA's Skylight system incorporates the most recently released NASA science
algorithms for a variety of science data products, including fire detection
maps, volcano eruption alerts, atmospheric profiles, and a variety of other
data products. The highly automated system tracks, downlinks, and processes
data from the MODIS Earth imaging instrument aboard the two NASA Earth
Observation System (EOS) satellites, Terra and Aqua. Its data products can be
searched for, distributed, and analysed entirely through a sophisticated web
interface. The complete system will be delivered in April.
Skylight
incorporates the powerful and very widely used ERDAS analysis package so that
users can create their own added-value data products. The product enjoys a
multimission capability, so that support for satellites such as Landsat and
Radarsat can be included later if desired by NASA.
ESA's
Rosetta mission, a
Status Report
(20
March 2003) Following the decision not to launch Europe's comet chaser,
Rosetta, in January, scientists and engineers in the programme have been
examining several alternative mission scenarios.
Each
has been looked at on the basis of the expected scientific return, the
technical risks related to using the Rosetta design in the new mission, and the
containment of costs.
Of the nine mission scenarios studied by the
Rosetta Science Working Team, three have survived to this point and were
presented to the delegations of the ESA Member States through the Science
Programme Committee at its meeting on 25/26 February. Two mission scenarios (in
February 2004 and 2005 respectively) would take Rosetta to a new target comet,
Churyumov-Gerasimenko, while another (in January 2004) would take it to its
original target, Comet Wirtanen.
All three options are now being
studied in detail so that the final decision can be made. A campaign of
observations using both the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the instruments
of the European Southern Observatory is under way to study Comet
Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In this way, astronomers will be able to characterise
the comet and perform a mission analysis, also to identify landing scenarios
and make a thorough assessment of any hardware modification that would be
necessary.
In parallel, ESA is assessing the launch requirements for
the various mission scenarios. This will include looking at alternatives to
Ariane as back-up options, such as the Russian Proton rocket.
The
final decision on Rosetta's new mission scenario will be made by the ESA
Science Programme Committee in May.
NASA
Selects Next
Medium-Class Explorer Mission
(20 March 2003) A swarm of spacecraft, designed to fly
through the space storms that cause aurora, has been chosen as the next mission
in NASA's Medium-class Explorer (MIDEX) program.
The
mission, to be launched in 2007, is the Time History of Events and Macroscale
Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS). THEMIS is a five-satellite mission with
the job of determining the causes of the global reconfigurations of the Earth's
magnetosphere that are evidenced in auroral activity. THEMIS consists of 5
small satellites, carrying identical suites of electric, magnetic, and particle
detectors, that will be put in carefully co-ordinated orbits. Every four days
the satellites will line up along the Earth's magnetic tail, allowing them to
track disturbances. The satellite data will be combined with observations of
the aurora from a network of observatories across the Arctic Circle. Dr
Vassilis Angelopoulos of the University of California will lead THEMIS at a
total mission cost to NASA of US$ 173 million.
NASA also selected, as
a mission-of-opportunity, an instrument for the Extreme Universe Space
Observatory (EUSO) mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). EUSO will study
the most energetic particles in the universe. Little is known about the
explosive events that create these particles throughout the universe.
From its location on the International Space Station, EUSO will look down on
the Earth's atmosphere to observe the characteristic blue light that
high-energy cosmic rays generate after hitting the Earth's atmosphere. NASA
will provide the largest Fresnel lens ever built for the EUSO telescope. Dr
James Adams Jr of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center will lead the agency's
contribution to EUSO at a total project cost to NASA of US$ 36 million.
NASA has decided to continue studying the Widefield Infrared Survey
Explorer (WISE), a four-channel, super-cooled infrared telescope designed to
survey the entire sky with 1,000 times more sensitivity than previous infrared
missions. A decision on proceeding to flight development with WISE will be made
in 2004. Dr Edward Wright of the University of California, Los Angeles, is the
Principal Investigator for WISE.
The Explorer Program is designed to
provide frequent, low-cost access to space for physics and astronomy missions
with small to mid-sized spacecraft. The first two MIDEX missions are the Imager
for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE), launched in 2000, and
the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), launched in 2001. The third
MIDEX mission, the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer is scheduled for launch in
December 2003. Swift will study the origins of black holes in gamma ray bursts,
the most energetic explosions in the universe.
The selected proposals
were among 31 MIDEX and 11 mission-of-opportunity proposals originally
submitted to NASA in October 2001 in response to an Explorer Program
Announcement of Opportunity issued in July 2001. NASA selected five proposals
in April 2002 for detailed feasibility studies. Funded by NASA at US$ 450,000
each, these studies focused on cost, management, and technical plans, including
small business involvement and educational outreach. NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center manages the Explorer Program for the Office of Space Science,
Washington.
Aura Delivers Prototype Near Field Data Communication System
to NASA
(18 March
2003) Aura Communications Inc has delivered a prototype data communication
system using patented near field magnetic wireless technology to NASA. The
system is to be evaluated for monitoring physiological status during astronaut
EVA activities and re-entry.
Aura's magnetic
communication technology provides reliable non-RF wireless communication that
is free from interference, nulls and fades typical in RF systems. The
technology works by creating a low power quasi-static magnetic bubble around a
user that provides extremely low power communication for voice, audio or
streaming data.
Aura's technology, is also being evaluated for the
Objective Force Warrior program of the US Army. For military applications, the
non-propagating nature of the magnetic wireless provides a highly secure
personal area communication environment that is virtually undetectable at
longer ranges.
Raytheon Awarded US$ 79 Million NASA Contract to Support Astronaut
Training
(20 March
2003) Raytheon Company has been selected to support facilities used to train
astronauts and flight controllers on critical mission skills at NASA's Johnson
Space Center (JSC) under a five- year contract valued at US$ 79 million
including options.
Under the contract, which includes a
two-year base period and three one- year options, Raytheon Technical Services
Company LLC (RTSC) and team-mate Oceaneering International Inc, will provide
real-time mission support, procedure development and verification, work-load
limitations and hardware design and validation, as well as operation,
maintenance and sustaining engineering for two human space flight training
facilities-the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory and the Space Vehicle Mockup
Facility-both at JSC in Houston. The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory supports
astronaut training for space walks using underwater mock-ups and pressurised
suite to simulate weightlessness. Full-scale mock-ups in the Space Vehicle
Mockup Facility are used to train astronauts for space flight.
RTSC
also provides development, maintenance, operations and sustaining engineering
for the Space Station Training Facility, which is used to simulate flight
activities for both astronaut and flight controller training.
Lockheed Martin Awarded Patent for Solid Rocket Nozzle Throat
Technology
(19
March 2003) The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted Lockheed
Martin a patent for a new and innovative, near-zero erosion, net-moulded
ceramic rocket nozzle throat for solid rocket motors. The new ceramic material
promises to improve solid rocket motor affordability and performance compared
to the current state-of-the-art 4D carbon-carbon material.
In 1997, Lockheed Martin Space & Strategic Missiles,
Sunnyvale, California initiated an advanced materials technology development
project to assess the feasibility of using ceramic materials in solid rocket
motor nozzle throats as part of an ongoing company-funded Independent Research
and Development (IRAD) program. The patent (Patent Number 6,510,694 B2) was
issued on January 28, 2003.
Propulsion design engineers with the Fleet
Ballistic Missiles (FBM) program teamed with materials scientists from the
company's Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, California to develop and
static test a ceramic as a low-erosion rocket nozzle throat material. FBM
engineers are developing this high-temperature advanced ceramic material for
potential use in future strategic missile-sized solid rocket motors, however,
the new nozzle throat material also holds promise for other applications
including tactical missiles and thrusters.
In a series of scale-up
tests using throats specimens up to 2" in diameter and 300 lb rocket motors
containing either Class 1.3 or Class 1.1 propellants, the Lockheed Martin
ceramic demonstrated to have less than 0.1 mils/second erosion rate and
outperformed (i.e., had less erosion than) 4D Carbon-Carbon by a factor of 20.
The ceramic throat inserts were fabricated using a net-moulding technique, that
is expected to provide a greater than 50% reduction in fabrication cost and
procurement lead-time compared to those of Carbon-Carbon.
Additional
tests of the cost saving ceramic throat technology are planned for the future.
The ATC recently fabricated the largest ceramic-lined nozzle throat insert to
date, a 5.2-inch throat insert that will be tested with an 800-pound, Class 1.1
solid rocket motor.
In January 2003, Technology Review - published by
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - for the third consecutive
year ranked Lockheed Martin first in the aerospace industry for the
technological strength and innovation of its patents. Last year, USPTO issued
199 patents to Lockheed Martin from a total of 500 patent applications
submitted by Lockheed Martin engineers and scientists.
Sea
Launch Ready to Fly
(20 March 2003) Sea
Launch President James G Maser has informed customers and insurers that Sea
Launch is ready to resume flight, following the completion of the Sea Launch
Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) investigation into the failure of the ILS
Proton Astra-1K mission.
Maser had grounded the Sea
Launch fleet following the ILS Proton mission failure on November 26, 2002,
when the Block DM upper stage failed to complete the second of three planned
burns. Similarities between the ILS Proton Block DM and the Sea Launch Block
DM-SL upper stages required that Sea Launch determine if there were any issues
that would have an impact on the Block DM-SL.
A CIS State Commission
recommended seven corrective actions to preclude similar failures in the
future. The Sea Launch FROB concluded a thorough review of facts and data of
the CIS State Commission and agreed with its findings into the root cause and
resulting corrective action.
The members of the Sea Launch FROB found
that six of the seven corrective actions either do not apply to the Sea Launch
configuration of the Block DM or are already in place within the existing Sea
Launch hardware, processes and quality assurance procedures.
Moving
forward, Sea Launch will address the one corrective action that is applicable
to the Block DM-SL. This corrective action provides for additional system level
testing and inspection during pre-launch processing of the Block
DM-SL.
SpaceX Performs First Rocket Engine Firing
(19 March 2003) Space
Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) has successfully fired its Falcon
rocket main engine.
In initial tests, the liquid oxygen
and kerosene engine, named Merlin, achieved full expected thrust of 60,000 lbs
and a combustion efficiency of 93%. With further testing, the company expects
to exceed a 96% efficiency level. This compares well with the much larger
Saturn V Moon rocket's F-1 engine, which used the same propellant combination,
but achieved only 93.5% efficiency.
The company's initial rocket,
named Falcon, is being offered for US$ 6 million per flight to orbit - less
than one-third the cost of currently available options. Although the Falcon
design draws upon the ideas of many prior launch vehicle programs, SpaceX is
developing the entire vehicle from the ground up, including both engines, the
turbo-pump, the cryogenic tank structure and the guidance system. Falcon is a
two-stage, liquid oxygen and kerosene powered rocket capable of placing half a
ton into low Earth orbit in the basic configuration and one and a half tons
with strap-on liquid boosters.
Falcon is expected to be ready for
launch by late 2003, with the actual lift-off date subject to Air Force, NASA
and FAA approval. Following this vehicle, SpaceX will develop a large
three-stage rocket using the first and second stages of the Falcon as its
second and third stages. That vehicle will compete in the heavy-lift payload
class currently occupied by Arianespace, Boeing, Lockheed, China Aerospace and
Russia's Krunichev.
Telesat Chooses ILS Proton Again
(19 March 2003) International Launch Services
(ILS) has finalised a contract with Telesat to launch the Anik F1R satellite on
a Russian Proton rocket in 2005.
The deal includes an
option for launching an additional satellite. Financial terms were not
disclosed.
The contract follows by less than three months the launch
of Telesat's Nimiq 2 satellite in the first commercial flight of the Proton
M/Breeze M configuration of the vehicle. The Anik F1R launch will also use a
Proton/Breeze M vehicle.
The satellite is a Eurostar 3000 model being
built by Astrium, Europe's largest space company. This type of spacecraft is
currently being integrated on a Proton/Breeze M for another customer's
mission.
DirecTV Latin America Files for Chapter 11 Reorganisation
(18 March 2003) DirecTV
Latin America LLC has filed a voluntary petition for reorganisation under
Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code. The filing applies only to DirecTV Latin
America LLC, a US company, and does not include any of its operating companies
in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will continue regular operations.
DirecTV is the leading pay television service in Latin
America and the Caribbean with approximately 1.6 million subscribers in 28
countries. DirecTV Latin America LLC intends to continue providing its DirecTV
service as normal without interruption across Latin America and the
Caribbean.
DirecTV Latin America LLC is a Delaware limited liability
company owned by DirecTV Latin America Holdings, a subsidiary of Hughes
Electronics Corporation; Darlene Investments LLC, an affiliate of the Cisneros
Group of Companies; and Grupo Clarin. The filing was made in the US Bankruptcy
Court in Wilmington, Delaware.
Hughes has agreed to provide DirecTV
Latin America with a US$ 300 million senior secured debtor-in-possession
financing facility (subject to Bankruptcy Court approval) to supplement its
existing cash flow and help ensure that vendors, programmers and other business
associates receive payment for services incurred after the bankruptcy filing
was made.
In early January 2003, DirecTV Latin America LLC announced
it had initiated negotiations with certain programmers, suppliers and business
associates in an effort to resolve issues that have affected the financial
performance of the Company in recent years, including excessive fixed costs and
a substantial debt burden during a time of economic deterioration throughout
Latin America. The Company's decision to voluntarily file for Chapter 11
followed its determination that these negotiations would not achieve a
satisfactory long-term outcome for DirecTV Latin America LLC.
In
conjunction with the Chapter 11 filing, DirecTV Latin America LLC has filed
"First Day Motions" in the court in Wilmington to support its employees and
vendors. These filings include requests to continue employee payroll and
benefits as usual; to obtain interim approval of the DIP financing from Hughes
and maintain existing cash management programs; and to retain legal and
financial professionals to assist with the Company's restructuring. In
addition, the Company intends to file motions seeking to reject certain
executory agreements that it has determined to be uneconomic and not in its
best long-term interest. These include contracts pertaining to Disney Channel
Latin America, Music Choice and certain exclusive rights to broadcast the 2006
FIFA World Cup soccer tournament.
DirecTV Latin America LLC will
continue normal business operations in its markets across Latin America and the
Caribbean.
Gilat
Announces Closing of
Debt Restructuring Plan
(17 March 2003) Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd has
closed its plan of arrangement with its bank lenders, holders of its 4.25%
Convertible Subordinated Notes due 2005 (the "Old Notes"), and certain other
creditors. At the closing, Gilat's Old Notes were cancelled and the holders of
the Old Notes were issued a combination of 4.00% Convertible Notes due 2012
(the "New Notes") and ordinary shares of the Company. Additional New Notes and
ordinary shares were also issued in exchange for a portion of the Company's
bank debt and debt to another financing creditor. The ordinary shares issued at
the closing are available for trading as of Monday, March 17, 2003.
As of March 17, 2003, a total of 259,757,196 ordinary shares
of the Company are outstanding. The completed transaction reduces the Company's
principal debt by approximately US$ 300 million, secures new agreements with
its banking creditors, and significantly reduces overall financing costs. The
Company intends to distribute shortly a proxy statement relating to a
shareholders meeting that it expects to hold in April of this year, to approve,
among other things (i) the implementation of a 1-for-20 reverse stock split,
(ii) an increase of the Company's share capital, and (iii) the election of a
slate of directors. The expected reverse stock split will reduce the number of
outstanding shares of the Company to approximately 12,987,860 shares, based on
the amount of outstanding shares as of March 17, 2003.
EMS
Technologies and
Stratos Partner to Sell Solutions to the Trucking Industry
(19 March 2003) EMS
Technologies and Stratos have announced the signing of a reseller agreement.
The agreement makes Stratos one of the principal resellers of EMS Technologies'
suite of advanced satellite communications terminals, including the PDT-100
packet data satellite terminal used throughout the trucking industry.
With the partnership, Stratos now offers trucking fleets a
total fleet management solution, using the EMS PDT-100 satellite terminal for
GPS tracking and sending and receiving messages and data. The PDT-100, which
weighs only three pounds, is extremely rugged and durable, due in part to an
omnidirectional antenna and lack of moving parts.
The system
communicates using Mobile Satellite Ventures' (MSV's) MSAT-1 satellite. Using
MSAT-1's spot beam technology, MSV offers superior coverage and capacity. This
technology turns all of North and Central America, northern South America, the
Caribbean, Hawaii, and up to 250 miles offshore into a single, digital
communications cell. As a result, MSV can deliver to end-users advanced and
affordable communications from anywhere to anywhere.
In addition to
hardware, Stratos sells the satellite airtime and the application software. As
such, Stratos offers trucking professionals a total solution to their fleet
management requirements.
The Geocom A.Maze solution is one of the
applications Stratos is bundling with the PDT-100. The Geocom solution allows
fleet managers to make significant savings on their operational costs by giving
them the means to improve their asset management, eliminate useless movement of
their assets, and improve the bottom line.
Globalstar Introduces New Fixed Satellite Phone Unit
(18 March 2003)
Globalstar is introducing a new fixed phone unit in the US, offering dependable
satellite voice communications at roughly half the price of the company's
earlier fixed units.
The Globalstar FAU-200,
manufactured by Ericsson, is a weather-proof fixed phone unit that can be
installed in virtually any outdoor location, such as on the side of a building
or on a stand-alone post. When attached to a power supply and a conventional
telephone handset, the FAU-200 provides immediate access to Globalstar's
satellite telephone network, providing reliable voice communications, even from
remote locations far from any cellular or hardwire telephone network.
The FAU-200, which carries a list price in the US of US$ 999, can operate in
extreme temperatures and environments, and each device can support up to three
separate phone units, either hardwire or cordless, on a single line. Unlike
earlier-generation satellite phones which required bulky directional antennas,
the Globalstar FAU-200, like all Globalstar phones, has an omni-directional
antenna that requires no calibration or aiming at all.
The Globalstar
FAU-200 is type approved in the United States, the European Union and other
countries, and it is registered with the International Telecommunication Union
under the ITU's "GMPCS Memorandum of Understanding."
Norsat to Debut Next-Generation NewsLink SNG Terminal at NAB
(16 March 2003) Norsat
International Inc will launch its next-generation ultra-portable SNG (satellite
news gathering) terminal, the Norsat NewsLink at NAB (National Association of
Broadcasters) 2003.
The new Norsat NewsLink terminal
provides broadcasters with an enormous advantage in first-strike news
reporting.
This next generation Norsat NewsLink has been significantly
improved, not only in terms of portability, but also in flexibility and
ease-of-use. It is the first complete SNG solution capable of broadcast quality
MPEG-2 video, which packs into small suitcases and can be checked as airline
baggage on international airline carriers. This is possible due to the
innovative design of its ultra-light segmented carbon fiber diamond antenna and
aluminum tripod which can be assembled and aligned in minutes.
The
latest Norsat NewsLink model also includes sophisticated and feature-rich
baseband electronics in a compact 1RU enclosure. The new MPEG-2 encoder,
designed by industry leader CJM2 Limited, combines exceptional quality with
ultra-low latency making it ideal for live broadcasting and news gathering. The
slim 1RU form factor of the baseband electronics allows it to easily integrate
with a variety of voice and data communications options to further extend the
capabilities of the Norsat NewsLink.
Choices for RF amplifiers,
including a new 25 W model, have been specially designed for the Norsat
NewsLink and are integrated into the antenna backplane, allowing this
ultra-portable solution to achieve data transmission rates of 2-6 Mb/s even
near the edge of the footprint.
The Norsat NewsLink includes features
that make the system dramatically easier to use than traditional SNG solutions.
The NewsLink incorporates unique and easy to use Microsoft Windows software
with a new portable sunlight readable LCD screen and sealed keyboard that
provides rich functionality such as a built-in dual-trace spectrum analyzer,
carrier beacon detector, antenna alignment wizard, transmitter control, and
alarming and diagnostic tools.
The simple operation of the Norsat
NewsLink eliminates the need to include an RF engineer on an SNG assignment
which is becoming increasingly important with modern newsgathering operations.
For example, news teams are being invited for the first time to
“embed” with the US military in the Gulf Region and are extremely
limited in the number of people and amount of equipment that can participate.
Clearly, the Norsat NewsLink is ideal for these kinds of SNG assignments. It
will also find appeal in a broad variety of other circumstances due to its
flexible and portable characteristics.
Major news broadcasters,
including CBS News, are currently field testing a number of Norsat NewsLink
terminals as part of embedded assignments in hostile environments like Kuwait.
The field testing has resulted in a number of enhancements to the product.
Norsat is currently accepting advance orders for the new
product.
Remote Satellite Carrier Line-ups on a Wi-Fi PDA
(19 March 2003)
IntegraSys SA has a wireless Internet based remote satellite carrier line-up
tool that works on a commercial PDA and supports Wi-Fi, cellular or sat-phone
connections to remote satellite monitoring stations via Internet.
The system has been designed for Two-Way Satellite
Interactive Terminal ( SIT ) and VSAT installers to provide them with a pocket
tool to perform the line-up and cross polarisation isolation adjustment on the
uplinked carrier used for the return channel. The PDA acts as a remote graphics
terminal to control a spectrum analyser and a solid-state input switching
multiplexer located at the hub station from, virtually, any part of the
world.
Users are connected to the monitoring station via wireless
Internet and access the monitoring spectrum analyser's trace information on the
PDA screen in real time. Several commercial spectrum analyser models from the
main instrument manufacturers are supported by the system.
To avoid
hub station co-ordination, the system includes a monitoring server computer and
software to interface remote PDA users to the monitoring instrumentation. This
server adds concurrent multi-user support, so one single monitoring analyser
can support multiple simultaneous installations. Using standard Wi-Fi speeds (
11 Mb/s ) , up to ten concurrent users per instrument will obtain one analyser
trace per second update rate, each using its own analyser set-up.
Stratos Announces High Speed Data Services in Fifth Ocean
Region
(18 March
2003) Stratos has announced the addition of a fifth Ocean Region for Inmarsat
services, Indian Ocean Region West (IND-W). Responding to traffic demands,
Inmarsat and Stratos have implemented a solution to provide additional GAN high
speed ISDN capability in the Indian Ocean Region.
Now,
land mobile users who may have had difficulty accessing satellite
communications channels due to satellite congestion will have increased
accessibility to Inmarsat satellite communications, which are critical for many
diverse operations around the world. Presently, service is limited to GAN ISDN
only, however additional service may be supported in this new Ocean Region
should demand dictate this action. The establishment of Indian Ocean Region
West (IND-W) is a temporary solution to meet traffic demands in the Indian
Ocean Region (IOR).
Management Changes at DirecTV Latin America
(18 March 2003) DirecTV
Latin America LLC has announced that Kevin N McGrath will retire as chairman,
effective immediately. Larry N. Chapman has been named president and chief
operating officer of DirecTV Latin America LLC, effective immediately. Chapman,
who has been with Hughes Electronics Corporation since 1980, will report to
Eddy W Hartenstein, chairman of DirecTV Latin America LLC and corporate senior
executive vice president of Hughes.
Hughes, through its
DirecTV Latin America Holdings subsidiary, owns 75 percent of DirecTV Latin
America LLC.
DirecTV Latin America LLC also announced that in order to
aggressively address the Company's financial and operational challenges, it has
filed a voluntary petition for reorganisation under Chapter 11 of the US
Bankruptcy Code. The filing applies only to DirecTV Latin America LLC, a US
company, and does not include any of its operating companies in Latin America
and the Caribbean, which will continue regular operations.
In December
2002, Chapman was named corporate senior vice president of Hughes to work with
Hartenstein and the DirecTV Latin America management team applying his
exceptional expertise and experience to assist in evaluating and managing the
DirecTV Latin America business consistent with the overall objectives of
enhanced competitiveness and profitability.
A member of the original
DirecTV launch team in the US, Chapman was executive vice president in charge
of DirecTV's Product Development, Marketing and Advertising organisations. In
his Product Development role, Chapman was responsible for DirecTV's receiver
development strategy as well as the development and deployment of advanced
services such as digital video recording and interactive television. Marketing
responsibilities included development and execution of customer offers and
promotions, customer upgrade efforts, and customer loyalty programs.
Advertising responsibilities included oversight of DirecTV's advertising
agency, advertising strategy, brand management and media planning.
From March 2000 through August 2001, Chapman was president of DirecTV Global
Digital Media Inc., a business unit of Hughes. Before his assignments with
DirecTV, Chapman served in various business development roles at Hughes
Communications Inc, a former satellite services subsidiary of Hughes
Electronics Corporation. Chapman holds MS and BS degrees in electrical
engineering from the University of Florida.
