World of Satellite-News Updates

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Harris, NOAA Co-Develop, Deploy PATRON Weather Satellite Tool
March 22, 2013
Harris Corporation has partnered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to develop and successfully deploy the Product Anomaly, Ticket, Relationship, Organization, and Notification (PATRON) – a new tool that aims to help track and report anomalies in critical weather satellite information.
Harris said it created the PATRON tool for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite – R Series (GOES-R) Ground Segment and that the unit was immediately implemented to support other environmental satellites currently in operation.
“PATRON is a trouble reporting and tracking system for satellite weather products created by the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service’s Office of Satellite Products and Operations (OSPO),” Harris said in a company statement. “Weather forecasters, emergency managers, scientists and other environmental data users throughout the western hemisphere rely on the accuracy and availability of this information to rapidly analyze and disseminate weather information to the public.”

 

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Thuraya's SatSleeve docks your iPhone onto its satellite network (VIDEO)
March 22, 2013
Despite the Gorilla glass, we're not sure if it's a great idea to bring that iPhone to K2. Still, if you can fire it up, you can now make satellite calls from Apple's iPhone 4 and 4s handsets thanks to Thuraya's SatSleeve. Always-on globetrotter types can slip one of those models into a cradle, dial their pals from virtually anywhere via the company's own satellite network and even place emergency calls without the handset.

The device also includes a built-in battery pack to stretch call times by charging your phone -- though given satellite rates, you may get charged more than you think. Thuraya said that an iPhone 5 version's also in the works, but if you're okay with Cupertino's prior models, hit the break for more.

 

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Estonia's Student Cubesat Satellite is Ready Vega Launch
March 22, 2013
Estonia's student cubesat satellite is ready for the next Vega launch. The tiny spacecraft passenger for Vega's upcoming Flight VV02 is getting the same "white glove" treatment as the launch's two larger payloads, with Estonia's ESTCube-1 student satellite now mission-ready at the Spaceport in French Guiana.

In the Spaceport's S1B clean room, ESTCube-1 has been integrated in its box-type dispenser - readying the cubesat for integration in the Vega launcher's payload "stack," along with the Proba-V and VNREDSat-1A passengers...

 

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ViaSat-2 to See Light of Day in 2016?
March 25, 2013
In September 2010, at the Comsys’ VSAT conference in London, ViaSat CEO Mark Dankberg spoke optimistically about placing an order for the ViaSat-2 satellite and having it launched by 2014. However, as we head out of SATELLITE 2013, it seems this panorama has become very uncertain. It is not clearer when an order for ViaSat-2 will be placed, but it appears as though 2016 might be a more realistic timeframe to see such a satellite placed into orbit, which would make it at least two years behind the original schedule.

At the “Satellite Broadband Comes of Age: The Ka-Band Equation” panel at SATELLITE 2013, Dankberg hinted at a big order to come for a new satellite, but declined to put an exact timeframe on when the company may procure it. He told the conference that ViaSat hopes to order the satellite “soon” and that the company has been working with a couple of satellite manufacturers regarding the configuration of this satellite.

Dankberg hinted that any new satellite could be a transformative one in the industry, but that having such ambitious plans for ViaSat-2 was one of the main reasons why they had been a delay in placing an order.

“We think the next satellite will be a pretty dramatic improvement [on ViaSat-1]. We hope to order it soon. We want to improve the economics dramatically. Sometimes, things take a long time in the satellite industry. On the consumer side, things have gone as amazingly as anticipated. We are getting half of our customers from terrestrial. We were expecting 20 percent. If we buy a satellite like ViaSat-1, we will not get the economics that we want. The consumer broadband business is an economic engine for what we are doing,” he said..

ViaSat has been gaining subscribers at a strong rate in North America. The company’s Exede residential broadband service has helped ViaSat reach more than 285,000 subscribers on ViaSat-1 in its first year of operation. The total subscriber count across all ViaSat satellites has surpassed 500,000 for the first time.

 

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JSC Global Contract Consulting Signs Capacity Lease with Eutelsat for Satellite TV Platform
March 25, 2013
Georgian media company JSC Global Contact Consulting has signed a multi-year lease with Eutelsat Communications for capacity on the Eutelsat 36B satellite. Using the widebeam footprint that provides coverage of Georgia, surrounding regions, and as far as Western Europe, JSC will launch a new satellite broadcasting platform called Global TV.

JSC Global Contact Consulting plans to start satellite broadcasting this month, with four free-to-air channels and progressively expanding to include both Georgian and international channels. Over the next two years, the company will install several thousand dishes across Georgia to accelerate access to the new platform. The dishes will be pointed to Eutelsat 36B located at 36 degrees east.

 

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PlanetIQ Presents Congress a Private Sector Approach for Looming Weather Satellite Gap
March 25, 2013
PlanetIQ has urged Congress to exercise its oversight of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and address the systemic failures, reported by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), that have led to a looming gap in satellite weather and climate data.

PlanetIQ’s President and Chief Executive Officer Anne Hale Miglarese testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, requesting the adoption of a private sector approach for NOAA. PlanetIQ’s proposal includes launching a constellation of 12 small satellites in low-Earth orbit to collect weather data. This data would be available for the federal government at less cost and risk than current government-funded efforts, according to the company.

During her testimony, Miglarese used the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) as an example. This agency adopted a similar data purchase model a decade ago, she explained, when the intelligence community faced a serious risk of "flying blind" due to cost overruns and schedule delays in the government's next generation of imagery intelligence satellites.

Using a similar model, NOAA could "spark a new American industry of commercial sources for weather and environmental data, and at the same time ensure the accuracy and advanced warning we have come to depend on for protecting lives, properties, economies and critical infrastructure," Miglarese said. "Private capital is ready and waiting," she continued. "But the government's culture of build-and-own-your-own satellites and the inability to commit is what's holding back these job-creating funds."

 

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New Landsat Satellite Snaps First Images Using Ball Aerospace’s OLI Sensor
March 25, 2013
The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) has completed initial checkout and snapped the mission's first multispectral images. The spacecraft was launched on Feb. 11.

Using Ball Aerospace & Technologies’ Operational Land Imager (OLI), and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS), built by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the LDCM will collect multispectral digital images of the global land surface including coastal regions, polar ice, islands, and the continental areas.

The Landsat series, managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), has provided key management data of the Earth's land surface for use by scientific, commercial and governmental agencies to understand the impact of global land changes for the past 40 years.

The LDCM is expected to provide increased radiometric sensitivity and additional spectral bands for a total of 11 spectral bands, compared with eight bands on its predecessor, Landsat 7. Also, LDCM is expected to return 400 images per day, compared to 250 images per day from Landsat 7.

Instruments on earlier Landsat satellites used scan mirrors to sweep the instrument fields of view across the surface swath width and transmit light to a few detectors. Ball Aerospace's OLI instrument uses long detector arrays, with over 7,000 detectors per spectral band, aligned across its focal plane to view across the swath. This "push-broom" design results in a more sensitive instrument providing improved land surface information.

 

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New Space Innovation Center to Help Government Agencies 'Launch' Future Space Missions
March 25, 2013
The EDGE Innovation Network has announced the opening of its new EDGE Space Innovation Center. This marks the 13th and newest center, housed within the General Dynamics' Seabrook, Md., facility; less than two miles from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"We look forward to the opening of this new capability just outside our gates and the opportunity to collaborate with other governmental, international and industry innovators to develop the technologies and missions that will mark a new era of discovery," Dr. Christyl Johnson, deputy director of the Goddard Space Flight Center, said on a statement.

The new Space Innovation Center is expected to connect NASA and other government agency professionals with more than 350 EDGE Innovation Network members from industry and academia. The facility offers meeting rooms and demonstration spaces for new ideas and solutions for next-generation spacecraft, scientific instruments, in-flight operations and the critical ground systems.

General Dynamics C4 Systems sponsors the EDGE Innovation Network as it continues its work as contractor for NASA's Space Network Ground Segment Sustainment (SGSS), which is modernizing the space agency's ground infrastructure systems for their Space Network.

 

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New App Compiles Satellite Database, Allow Users to Request Images from Space
March 25, 2013
A new app from Southern Stars for Apple devices allows users to access a complete database of spacecraft orbiting Earth. For $2.99 the Satellite Safari app features a number of views of the spacecraft such as from Earth, from above the Earth or right next to the orbiting satellite with the sun’s lighting at the correct orientation. At the orbital view, users can zoom in to see details of the satellite, or rotate the image to see it from any angle.

The app enables satellite industry enthusiasts to locate satellites in real time, and try to spot them with binoculars. The satellite positions are updated every second, and the position calculations are updated every day.

Satellite Safari is the official app of the Sky Cube Mission, which is expected to launch from the International Space Station in September. Once it is deployed, users will be able to request their own satellite images and broadcast their own messages from orbit as “tweets from space” using the Satellite Safari app.

 

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Ghana University to Launch its First Satellite
March 25, 2013
The All Nations University College in Koforidua, Ghana, has announced its plans to launch its first satellite. “CANSAT,” built by the Intelligent Space System Laboratory of the university, is expected to sensitize prospective students who wish to pursue a career in the Space Science and Satellite Technology program the university started offering last year.

The Intelligent Space System Laboratory was set up as an educational project to foster the integration and collaboration among engineering and science careers, as well as to encourage teamwork. To accomplish these goals, the students worked on the CANSAT project, a small satellite with all typical components such as sensors, actuators, and GPS, housed inside a 350-ml can.

The CANSAT project gave students practical training in conceptualizing the mission, planning and designing the satellite as well as building and testing it. The lab is also working on establishing a satellite ground station for research purposes.

According to the university, the project enabled students to establish and international collaboration network. The university also announced it plans to design, build and launch a 3 Kg CubeSat into orbit by 2016.

Ashievi Kofi, director of Space Science Ghana, urged Ghana’s government to make a financial commitment to the university’s program. According to Kofi, the program will help improve the economic development of the country. He mentioned China, South Korea, India, Malaysia and Singapore as examples of countries that applied science and technology as a tool for economic development.