October 2014

An areal view of the Harwell Science and Innovation campus in the U.K. Photo: Harwell Oxford. [Via Satellite 10-03-2014] When the United Kingdom first announced its goal to grow the country’s share of the global space industry to 10 percent, it garnered a lot of attention. Since that time, two satellite industry primes, Lockheed Martin…

EIAST joining the Global Earth Observation Alliance. Photo: EIAST [Via Satellite 10-03-2014] The Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) has joined the first global alliance of Earth observation satellites operators, PanGeo. The alliance, announced at the annual Summit on Earth Observation Business in Paris, is a coalition to share the products, data and…

CNES pavilion at the Paris Air Show. Photo: CNES [Via Satellite 10-03-2014] The French Space Agency, CNES, has signed a contract with STmicroelectronics to develop the Astragan1 chipset, which aims to bring fast satellite broadband to users everywhere, including in areas outside those covered by terrestrial fixed and mobile broadband networks. The chipset will support…

The State vs. Oscar Pistorius. Palace of Justice, Church Square, pretoria. Photo: Wikipedia [Via Satellite 10-03-2014] A partnership between Avanti Communications, hardware supplier Sematron and Broadcast IP Systems (BIPS), allowed global news agency, Thomson Reuters to successfully broadcast live HD coverage of the entire Oscar Pistorius court trial. Since March, Reuters and its commercial partners…

GSP-1700 Satellite Phones. Photo: Globalstar [Via Satellite 10-03-2014] The Spanish Ministry of Defense has approved the Globalstar GSP-1700 satellite phone for use by its personnel and also has extended its use of Spot Gen3 GPS tracking and safety devices with an order for a further 300 units. The Spanish government will use the devices to…

Comtech EF Data’s CDM-625A modem. Photo: Comtech EF Data [Via Satellite 10-03-2014] Comtech EF Data has received $1.7 million in satellite communications equipment orders from a systems integrator in Asia. The customer ordered the equipment to support the expansion of an existing satellite-based network infrastructure based upon Comtech EF Data products. The orders specified high-speed…

Xplornet’sExecutive Vice President of Marketing, Chris Johnston. Photo: Xplornet [Via Satellite 10-02-2014] Xplornet, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) dedicated to providing connectivity in rural Canada, has ramped up the satellite side of its business in order to cover the entire country. Earlier this year the company signed lifetime contracts for all the residential Canadian capacity…

Eutelsat 21B Widebeam. Photo: Eutelsat [Via Satellite 10-02-2014] Eutelsat has entered an agreement with new customer Vizocom for capacity on the Eutelsat 21B satellite. Vizocom will be using two of Eutelsat’s high power service areas to provide connectivity at speeds between 6 and 10 Mbps across the Middle East and Africa. Vizocom has plans to…

O3b’s Peru teleport. Photo: O3b [Via Satellite 10-02-2014] O3b Networks has signed its first customer in Latin America for its High Throughput Satellite (HTS) “Fiber in the Sky” service. E-Networks, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) based in Guyana, signed a multi-year agreement with the company, becoming the first Latin American client since O3b launched its…

NASA administrator Charles Bolden (left) and Chairman K. Radhakrishnan of the Indian Space Research Organisation signing documents in Toronto on Sept. 30, 2014 to launch a joint Earth-observing satellite mission and establish a pathway for future joint missions to explore Mars. Photo: NASA [Via Satellite 10-02-2014] Meeting at the 65th International Astronautical Congress in Toronto…