June 2015

Photo: SES [Via Satellite 06-04-2015] SATMED, the medical component of Luxembourg’s emergency.lu recovery platform, has been deployed at the Maternité Hospital in Ahozonnoude, Benin to improve childbirth healthcare. The eHealth platform uses SES satellite Internet connectivity to operate as a remote consultation and monitoring tool, providing effective communications between the maternity hospital in Ahozonnoude, the…

Level 3 Communications Network across the Asia-Pacific. Photo: Level 3 Communications [Via Satellite 06-04-2015] Level 3 is providing deep-edge caching services to Optus Wholesale and Satellite that will enable Optus to locally cache high-demand content on its network. The agreement gives Optus quicker access to content while growing Level 3’s Content Delivery Network (CDN) capacity…

A Comtech Xicom SuperPower TWTA [Via Satellite 06-04-2015] Comtech Xicom Technology, a subsidiary of Comtech Telecommunications, has received a $4.3 million order for Solid-State-Power-Amplifiers (SSPAs) and a $1.1 million order for Super-Power Traveling Wave Tube Amplifiers (TWTAs). The SSPAs are for use in an airborne In-Flight Entertainment and Communications (IFEC) application, an area in which…

Caption: Image of Typhoon Maysak captured by the AMI on board the Himawari 8 satellite. Photo: JMA [Via Satellite 06-03-2015] With one instrument already in orbit and several others moving toward launch, Exelis, now Harris Corp., is looking to modernize storm tracking and weather forecasting with its Advanced Meteorological Imager (AMI). The geospatial imager has…

MUOS 4, the next satellite scheduled to join the U.S. Navy’s secure communications network later this year, is in final assembly and test at Lockheed Martin’s satellite manufacturing facility in Sunnyvale, Calif. Photo: Lockheed Martin [Via Satellite 06-03-2015] The United States Navy has accepted the third Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite which, having completed…

A Proton rocket stood up for launch. Photo: TsENKI [Via Satellite 06-03-2015] The Russian federal space agency Roscosmos issued a statement carried by International Launch Services (ILS) that attributed the May 16, 2015 Proton launch failure to the rocket’s stage three steering engine. The findings come from the Russian State Commission, which traced the mission…

RD-180 engines. Photo: ULA/NASA [Via Satellite 06-03-2015] The United States Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) has released a formal solicitation seeking proposals for public-private investments in rocket propulsion system prototypes. This solicitation is part of a comprehensive Air Force plan to transition off the Russian supplied RD-180 propulsion system used on the…

A train traveling through Colorado. Photo: Jerry Huddleston [Via Satellite 06-03-2015] Norsat announced it has received orders in excess of $800,000 for its mobile, wayside and base station antennas for exclusive use in Positive Train Control (PTC) applications. The order brings total 2015 year to date commitments from customers to purchase approximately $1.3 million for…

Digital rendition of space debris. Photo: NASA [Via Satellite 06-03-2015] Orbcomm and Turkish satellite operator Turksat have joined the Space Data Association (SDA), an international non-profit association of satellite operators that supports the sharing of space environment and Radio Frequency (RF) spectrum data. The SDA improves Space Situational Awareness (SSA) among satellite operators to reduce…

Photo: IPSAT Sdn Bhd [Via Satellite 06-03-2015] IPSAT Sdn Bhd, a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) communications company in Malaysia, has purchased a Hughes HX broadband satellite system comprised of a hub and remote terminals. Implementation of the hub is underway in Malaysia, with completion expected by the end of the month. IPSAT provides both…