Month's News : MilsatMagazine

Military Satellite News (January & February 2008)Visit www.satnews.com/military for today's military satellite news

February 21, 2008
Norwegian MilChat Provided By Harris
Harris Corporation [NYSE: HRS] has received a contract from the Defence Forces of Norway to provide several thousand RF-7800S Secure Personal Radios. Full Story

SpySat Deorbitized—The World Is Safe!
According to Marine General James Cartwright, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, there is a high degree of confidence that the U.S. Navy missile launched yesterday scored a direct hit on the falling U.S. spysat, once the order to proceed had been received from Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Full Story

February 20, 2008
Astrium Services Provides A Great Service To Those in Service
Astrium Services has opened its first teleport in Toulouse, France. This is in addition to their already existing satellite infrastructure network presence in the United Kingdom and Germany. Full Story

February 19, 2008
Stuffin' The SpySat — Congratulations to the United States & The U.S. Navy — One Shot, It's Gone!
The U.S. Navy has shot down the wayward U.S. spysat over the Pacific... the missile struck the satellite 130 miles in the atmosphere and destroyed the satellite at 10:30 EST. Full Story

Skynet Soars + Scores, Superseding Schedule
The first operational traffic was carried successfully on Skynet 5B at 05:00 on January 28th, 2008, one month earlier than originally planned. Skynet 5B was launched on an Ariane 5 launcher on November 9th, 2007, from Kourou, French Guiana. Full Story

February 18, 2008
More SpySat Shootin' Stuff...
OK, the plan to destroy the failed U.S. spysat continues to develop... this coming Thursday offers the window of opportunity for annihilation, the day after the Atlantis shuttle makes it home. Full Story

February 14, 2008
SpySat To Be Shot On Site
A Navy missile will be fired at the recalcitrant U.S. spy satellite that is heading to Earth in an attempt to reduce the re-entry remnant to negligible bits. Full Story

February 13, 2008
New Sat Contracts Fit Frequency
Frequency Electronics, Inc. [NASDAQ:FEIM) has new contracts with a total value of more than $9 million for two, long-term, domestic satellite programs. Full Story

Super Show In San Diego—It's ISCe + More...
What a fantastic area wherein to conduct a satcom trade show—San Diego, California—June 10th through 12th—and it's actually THREE SHOWS IN ONE! Full Story

Contract Mods For Boeing + Lockheed Martin
Contract modifications to the tune of $287,997,350 and $210,429,500 have been awarded to Boeing Launch Services and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, respectively. Full Story

February 11, 2008
Turkey Interested In Israeli SpySats As Well
During a visit to Turkey this week, the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is going to see what he can accomplish in selling the idea of an Israeli satellite and other military goodies to that country. Full Story

Mahmoud Mentions More Motile Moves
Two additional research rockets will be launched by Iran prior to the country's first domestically built "research" satellite is in orbit. Full Story

SatCom Improvements In Raytheon's Ballpark
Another home run by Raytheon, as the company has just received a $75 million from the U.S. Air Force to upgrade the Minuteman Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network. Full Story

February 7, 2008
New USAF Contracts For Alliant's Launch Systems Group In Jeopardy
Alliant Techsystems has been notified by the Department of the Air Force that the Launch Systems Group has temporarily been placed on the Excluded Parties List. Full Story

February 6, 2008
A High Stare For BAE Systems
A $15 million contract to develop advanced infrared focal-plane arrays (FPAs) for U.S.A.F. missile defense surveillance satellites has been awarded to BAE Systems. Full Story

A Triple For Major ULA<=>USAF Play
A $505 million contract has been awarded by the U.S. Air Force to United Launch Alliance (ULA). Full Story

ORBIT News Brief : Boeing Recruiting Ares I Suppliers - Full Story

February 5, 2008
DoD Budget Request Heads To U.S. Congress
A 3.4 percent military pay raise, a 2.9 percent civilian raise, money to continue to grow the Army and Marines, and a funding increase to maintain readiness, all are major aspects of the fiscal 2009 defense budget request President Bush sent to Congress today. The defense budget request is for $515.4 billion—a $35.9 billion increase over the 2008 level. The total federal budget request for fiscal 2009 is $3.1 trillion. Full Story

February 4, 2008
Iran Claims Their Satellite Is For Research
Gotta keep an eye on this alleged "leader" of Iran... the country has tested a missile that can lift a satellite into space, this according to the country's state television service. Full Story

U.S.A.F. Hits Up Congress For Billions Of Bucks
Military space programs, satellites, missiles, systems... all cost big bucks! Full Story

February 3, 2008
ORBIT News Brief : Spy Sat Splat On Australia????? - Full Story

February 1, 2008
Raytheon To Broadcast Super Bowl To Troops!
We just received a call from Raytheon last Friday morning regarding the approval just granted them to broadcast the Super Bowl LXII to our highly deserving and valiant sailors and marines who are at sea in the Pacific region. Full Story

January 31, 2008
Soaring SAR Brings Images Home To Israel
Two weeks ago, the Israeli sneak-a-peek satellite TESCAR was launched with its SAR capabilities, super imaging surveillance radar. Full Story

January 30, 2008
WGS Use By Warfighters Could Be Earlier Than Planned
With six satellites planned for the WGS system, and considering the fact that the latest satellite is exceeding key requirements, the U.S. Air Force may be able to place the first Wideband Global SATCOM into use earlier than anticipated. Full Story

January 29, 2008
Chinese + Brazilian Satellite Send Home Photos
It's a first — a hi-def Earth resources satellite co-developed by China National Space Administration (CNSA) and Brazil now provides hi-def photos. Full Story

Chad-Bound Irish Peacekeepers Communications With Norsat
Norsat International Inc. [TSX: NII and OTC BB: NSATF] provides intelligent satellite solutions. The company has been awarded approximately $1.1 million in contracts by the Republic of Ireland’s Department of Defence (DoD) to provide satellite system equipment, satellite capacity, training and network services for the Irish Defence Forces’ peacekeeping mission to Chad. Full Story

January 28, 2008
ORBIT News Brief : U.S.A.F. Hardening Their Target - Full Story

January 27, 2008
The Sky Is Falling, The Sky Is Falling—U.S. Spy Sat To Splat
There has been plenty of coverage this past weekend regarding the U.S. spy satellite tumbling to Earth due to an engine failure... the satellite is expected to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere sometime late next month or early in March. Full Story

Russian Comsat Gets Express Delivery
The Express-AM33 launch initiated at the Baikonur, Kazahstan, launch center, occurred at 3:18 a.m., Moscow time — that's 23:18 GMT, Sunday). Full Story

January 24, 2008
WGS Almost Ready To Support Full Ops
The U.S. Air Force formally accepted the first Wideband Global SATCOM satellite on January 18th from its prime contractor, The Boeing Company. Full Story

Lockheed Martin Gains More For TSAT
An additional $336 million in funding has been received by Lockheed Martin to continue their work on the ground-based mission ops system for TSAT (Transformational Satellite Communications). Full Story

ORBIT News Brief : Israeli + India To Cooperate On Two More Sats - Full Story

January 23, 2008
Northrop Grumman + IAI Have Already Offered SAR Goodie To U.S.
Last Monday witnessed the successful launch of the TECSAR satellite by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for the Israeli vehicle. Full Story

Northrop's Ears Helps Japanese "Listen"
After deploying successfully onboard the SELenological and ENgineering Explorer "KAGUYA" (SELENE) space vehicle launched by Japan, the four specialized antennas built by Northrop Grumman Corporation are functioning exactly as they were expected for the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) first large lunar explorer. Full Story

Integral Handovers and Handoffs WGS To CCS-C
Integral Systems, Inc., [NASDAQ-ISYS] has completed the handover of satellite bus operations for the initial WGS [Wideband Global SATCOM (Satellite Communications)] satellite to the CCS-C (Command and Control System – Consolidated)baseline—on schedule. Full Story

ULA Gathers In Another Launch Award
Boeing and Lockheed Martin formed a joint venture called United Launch Alliance in 2006, which was a rather fortuitous and sensible move, given their project simpatico. ULA has now been awarded a $505.3 million contract by the U.S. Air Force to provide rocket launch services for three National Reconnaissance Office satellites. Full Story

January 22, 2008
L-3 Latches On To More Navy Work
A $13.8 million contract from the U.S. Navy has been awarded to L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. Full Story

Almost The Last GPS Sat Flown To Launch Site
Last Thursday, the second to last Global Positioning System block IIR-M satellites to be launched arrived at Cape Canaveral AFS. GPS satellite IIR-M20 is one of two currently being processed for launch by the 45th Launch Support Squadron. Full Story

Two NPO PM Sat Activities Nearing Completion
The satellite Express-AM33 has now been prepared for transfer to the launch complex at the Baikonur Cosmodrome by the Reshetnev Association of Applied Mechanics (NPO PM) Team. Plus, NPO PM created the Ybileiny satellite last year and the plan is to orbit the vehicle with a cluster of three satellites built under the company's contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense. Full Story

January 20, 2008
Israeli SpySat Settles In...
Designed and developed by MBT Space, which is a division of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the new Israeli Tecsar satellite was boosted into space today via the Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) Polar Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Full Story

January 19, 2008
Adieu, TacSat-2
Launched on December 16th, 2006, from NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia, the TacSat-2 microsatellite's operations have been terminated by the U.S. Air Force. Full Story

January 16, 2008
Speedy SatFolk @ Lockheed Martin and Air Force Space Command
The modernized Global Positioning System Block IIR (GPS IIR-M) satellite, launched from Cape Canaveral on December 20th, 2007, has been declared fully operational. This follows a record-setting on-orbit deployment by the joint U.S. Air Force/Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] team. Full Story

Harris Communicating Extremely Well With Falcons
Harris Corporation [NYSE: HRS] has received several new orders for its Falcon family of radios, with the orders worth US$158M. Full Story

January 15, 2008
Harris Garners U.S.A.F. Space Wing's Confidence
Now contracted to provide ops and maintenance support to the U.S.A.F.'s 50th Space Wing's Air Force Satellite Control Network (AFSCN) at various global locations is Harris Corporation. Full Story

January 14, 2008
NATO Nod To Globecomm
Globecomm Systems Inc. [NASDAQ: GCOM] provides end-to-end, value-added satellite-based communication products, services and solutions by leveraging its core satellite ground segment systems and network capabilities, with its satellite communication services capabilities. Full Story

ORBIT Brings OrSat To Market
ORBIT has debuted their dual offset Gregorian 1.15m (45-inches) OrSat AL-7103 MKII Ku-band antenna. Full Story

January 12, 2008
Joining Forces... C2SAST & DRS Technologies
C2SAT [NGM Stock Market Exchange, C2ST] provides advanced shipboard stabilized satellite communications terminals. The company has just entered into a technology licensing agreement with DRS Technologies, Inc. [NYSE: DRS], to market and sell C2SAT’s shipboard stabilized Ku-band terminals to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and other government agencies. Full Story

January 8, 2008
ATCi Monitors The World
Able to monitor satellite carriers in real-time from a central location is the new Warrior Satellite Monitoring System from Antenna Technology Communications, Inc. (ACTi). Full Story

The Boeing and Lockheed Martin TSAT Bounce
A contract extension for US$75M has been awarded to Boeing Satellite Systems and to Lockheed Martin as a modification of their original Transformational Communication Satellite (TSAT) Space Segment Risk Reduction and System Definition (RR&SD) contracts. Full Story

Launching Success Is ILS
New launch orders received by International Launch Services (ILS) during 2007 totaled US$1.5B, quite a feat for the firm's first year as an independent company marketing the Proton Breeze M vehicle. Full Story

January 7, 2008
Harris' TOP SECRET Certification For Manpack
Offering a 30 MHz to 2 GHz freq range, a SCA-operating environment, significant processing power, plus the ability to accommodate new waveforms for networking, TACSAT, commercial L-band satellite and public safety interoperability, all describe the features of the Harris Corporation Falcon III multiband, multimission manpack radio. Full Story

January 6, 2008
Israeli SARsat Launch Could Occur This Quarter
According to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the often delayed launch of a Israeli spy satellite, TechSAR, could actually occur during the first quarter of this new year. Full Story

January 3, 2008
Comtech Telecommunications Wracks Up New U.S. Army Orders
Comtech Telecommunications Corp. [NASDAQ:CMTL] announced their Maryland-based subsidiary, Comtech Mobile Datacom Corporation, has received orders totaling US$17.7M under the firm's IDIQ contract with the U.S. Army Communications Electronics Command (CECOM). Full Story

ORBITS: News Briefs...
— Chile Set To Spend Millions On SatSystem — EchoStar Morphs — Bi-SatNav System Sells Out — Shin Has Terminal Sales — Telenor Cruising With New Contract — CEO's Funds Facilitate WorldSpace Plans — Full Story

Return To Top