December 2014

A Comtech Telecommunications facility. Photo: Comtech [Via Satellite 12-24-2014] Comtech Telecommunications, a manufacturer of advanced communications solutions, has appointed Stanton Sloane as the company’s new president and chief executive officer. Fred Kornberg will transition to the role of executive chairman of the Board of Directors. From August 2011 to December 2014, Sloane served as president,…

Photo: Wikimedia Commons [Via Satellite 12-23-2014] Broadcom, a semi-conductor manufacturer for wired and wireless communications has combined a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver with a satellite Outdoor Unit (ODU), enabling pay-TV operators to geo-lock content to subscribers. The company hopes the new product, which took roughly a year to complete, will reduce the theft…

The Angara A5.1L launch from the Plesetsk Cosmosdrome. Photo: Roscosmos [Via Satellite 12-23-2014] The Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos reports the Angara A5.1L rocket, a new Russian heavy lift vehicle, has completed its first successful launch at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia. The demonstration tested the three-stage rocket’s ability to place a satellite in geostationary…

Humanitarian experts and specialists from the European Mobile Lab project that were deployed in the weeks following the March 2013 news of a confirmed Ebola case in West Africa. Photo: EMLab [Via Satellite 12-23-2014] SES has joined forces with B-LiFE, a collective organization of public, private and academic specialists to support a mobile medical laboratory…

A Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT). Photo: Wikipedia [Via Satellite 12-23-2014] The number of VSAT and broadband subscribers is projected to reach 9.5 million by 2023 and generate $8.8 billion in revenue from service provisioning and Consumer Premises Equipment (CPE) sales, according to a new report from Northern Sky Research (NSR). The research firm’s “VSAT…

RF-7800I Intercom Systems, Photo: Harris Corp. [Via Satellite 12-23-2014] Harris Corporation has received an $18 million order for Harris Falcon 3 tactical vehicular radios and intercom systems from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The company plans to integrate the Falcon RF-7800V combat net radio with the RF-7800I intercom systems for the Philippine Army’s…

A Gilat SkyEdge 2-c Hub. Photo: Gilat [Via Satellite 12-23-2014] A Latin American telecommunications service provider will use a High Throughput Satellite (HTS) multi-spot beam solution from Gilat Satellite Networks for Ka-band Internet services. The telco recently purchased five spot beams collectively amounting to 2.3 GHz of capacity for applications in consumer, enterprise and mobility…

DSCOVR spacecraft at NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center. Photo: NASA [Via Satellite 12-22-2014] NASA, the United States Air Force and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have joined forces to revive the Triana satellite, renamed the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), for a five year space weather mission. First planned in the late 1990s, the…

An ILS Proton used for the launch of SES’ Astra 2E. Photo: ILS [Via Satellite 12-22-2014] The 6-ton Astra 2G satellite is scheduled to launch on Dec. 28, 2014 at 3:37 Baikonur Time aboard a Proton rocket through International Launch Services (ILS). Built for SES by Airbus Defence and Space, the Astra 2G satellite carries…

Artist’s rendition of Inmarsat 2 F2. Photo: Airbus Defence and Space [Via Satellite 12-22-2014] The Inmarsat 2 F2 satellite built by Airbus Defence and Space was decommissioned this week after 23.5 years of performance in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO). Lasting more than two decades, the satellite took the world record for longevity from a previous…