News & Events

An Air Traffic Control tower. Photo: Aireon [Via Satellite 09-25-2014] Aireon has added Vincent Capezzuto to its management team as chief technology officer and vice president of engineering. Capezzuto is responsible for leading the design, development and implementation of the AireonSpace-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast system. Prior to joining Aireon, Capezzuto served as the Federal Aviation…

An MDA ground station. Photo: MDA [Via Satellite 09-25-2014] DigitalGlobe has selected MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) to build a new ground station for an international customer. The station will enable the customer to receive and process imagery from DigitalGlobe’s WorldView 1, WorldView 2 and WorldView 3 spacecraft. According to MDA, the ground station will…

KVH TracVision Antennas. Photo: KVH [Via Satellite 09-25-2014] KVH Industries has initiated a new Pay-As-You-Go program to deliver satellite television to maritime customers, providing month-to-month 30-day service packages. The service, which targets mainly seasonal boaters, allows clients with a TracVision satellite TV antenna system access to more than 200 high definition channels through Dish Network.…

A Snecma electric propulsion system. Airbus has an agreement with Snecma for electric propulsion systems. Photo: Airbus Defence and Space [Via Satellite 09-23-2014] Bolstered by recent new deals, Airbus Defence and Space has pulled ahead with two contract wins for all-electric satellites during 2014; a year where, so far, no other manufacturer has received any…

Telefonica del Peru connects rural communities in Peru through mobile connectivity. Photo: Telefonica del Peru [Via Satellite 09-24-2014] Telefonica del Peru, the Peruvian arm of the Telefonica Group, has upgraded to iDirect Evolution using iDX 3.2 software in order to increase data rates and bandwidth efficiency. According to iDirect, the decision was prompted by one…

Rendering of an Iridium Next satellite. The constellation’s first launch is scheduled for June 2015. Photo: Iridium [Via Satellite 09-24-2014] Iridium has finished testing a new solar panel design for use on the Iridium NEXT constellation. Built by Spectrolab and Mitsubishi Electric, the improved triple junction solar cells are based on six-inch wafers, providing 50…

A Comtech Telecommunications facility. Photo: Comtech [Via Satellite 09-24-2014] Three Comtech Telecommunications subsidiaries have received new or follow on contracts for different satellite products. Comtech Xicom Technology, Comtech PST and Comtech Mobile Datacom brought in a combined $15.3 million with these new deals. Comtech Xicom Technology received a $2.5 million order from a military integrator…

Digital rendering of TEMPO. Photo: NASA [Via Satellite 09-24-2014] Boeing announced it is has received a new six-month contract to evaluate a scientific hosted payload named Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO). A future commercial satellite would support the hosted payload, which would study atmospheric pollution over the majority of North America. The TEMPO study…

The MAUC-011003 Up-converter. Photo: Macom [Via Satellite 09-24-2014] Macom has released the MAUC-011003 up-converter specialized for 28 to 34 GHz point-to-point radio applications. The device is designed for point-to-point radios in both Lower Sideband (LSB) and Upper Sideband (USB) operation as well as Ka-Band VSAT applications. The new integrated up-converter has a typical conversion gain…

Planes equipped with a 1090 MHz ADS-B transceiver can be tracked using Aireon’s space-based ADS-B. Photo: Aireon. [Via Satellite 09-23-2014] Aireon has announced it is including a free emergency aircraft-tracking feature in its upcoming space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) constellation. The Aircraft Locating and Emergency Response Tracking (ALERT) system will become operational shortly after the…