May 2015

Kacific’s Coverage Map. Photo: Kacific [Via Satellite 05-14-2015] Kacific Broadband Satellites, an emerging satellite operator in the Asia-Pacific region, sees a huge opportunity to deliver satellite broadband to underserved remote communities of the Pacific islands, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. With plans to launch the company’s first satellite around the end of 2016,…

2nd Space Operations Squadron (2SOPS) at Schriever Air Force Base’s Master Control Station. Photo: U.S. government [Via Satellite 05-14-2015] Raytheon has delivered the first hardware shipment for the United States Global Positioning System’s Next-Gen Operational Control System (GPS OCX) to Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado, the future site of the GPS OCX master control…

Artist’s rendition of a GPS 3 satellite. Photo: U.S. Air Force [Via Satellite 05-14-2015] On May 13, the U.S. Air Force released a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) for GPS 3 launch services, marking the first competition for launches in the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program in more than a decade. Launch services include…

Horizon 1′s Ku-band footprint. Photo: Intelsat [Via Satellite 05-14-2015] Lepton Global Solutions has launched a managed satellite network service for enterprise and government markets in North America. The company is providing services through Intelsat’s Horizons 1 satellite at 127 degrees west, and a Lepton-owned iDirect hub collocated with the operator’s Paumalu teleport on the island…

Globalstar’s SmartOne C simplex asset manager. Photo: Globalstar [Via Satellite 05-14-2015] Globalstar has released the SmartOne C, a new one-way asset manager for commercial and government customers. The simplex device builds on the company’s existing SmartOne B model with new features for monitoring and managing fixed and portable assets. The SmartOne C uses an accelerometer…

The Belintersat Project sales team with Andrey Abramov, head of the project standing in the center. Photo: Belintersat [Via Satellite 05-13-2015] Belintersat, the new national satellite operator of the Republic of Belarus, is less than a year away from the launch of its first spacecraft. Established by the government for the purpose of creating a…

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket used for NASA’s CRS-4 mission. Photo: SpaceX [Via Satellite 05-13-2015] The United States Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) and SpaceX have formally amended the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) for certifying the Falcon 9 launch system to compete for Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) contracts. The revised…

The first GPS 3 satellite, SV 01. Photo: Lockheed Martin [Via Satellite 05-13-2015] Lockheed Martin has completed the final integration of the first Global Positioning System 3 (GPS 3) satellite, pairing the system module with the propulsion core and paving the way for system-level testing. Built for the U.S. Air Force, the GPS 3 Space…

Hispasat’s Amazonas 3 satellite. Photo: SSL [Via Satellite 05-13-2015] Hispasat has signed a long-term agreement with Mexican satellite service provider Spacenet for the distribution of movies and live shows to movie theaters throughout Mexico. Using a transponder on the Amazonas 3 satellite, Hispasat and Spacenet will reach more than 500 movie theaters around the country.…

Aitech’s rugged 48-port managed gigabit Ethernet switch. Photo: Aitech [Via Satellite 05-13-2015] Aitech Defense Systems has released a new standalone, fully managed layer 2/3 IPv6 48-port gigabit Ethernet switch, the A661, for interconnecting several subsystems to pass data across a rugged broadband network. The radiation tested and qualified device is robust enough for use in…