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Issue #50 - April 10, 2003 |
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Ariane 5 Lifts Insat 3A and PanAmSat Galaxy XII Into SpaceBoeing and Ball Aerospace to Design, Market Laser-Based Satellite CommunicationsNews Corp. To Buy HughesLoral Skynet Completes Integration with Loral CyberStarUS Military Launches Fifth and Final Milstar Communications SatelliteTelesat and Storm Internet Services Bring Broadband to Rural CanadaDoD and NRO To Use New Satellites to Improve Bandwidth to the Field
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Ariane 5 Lifts Insat 3A and PanAmSat Galaxy XII Into SpaceAn Ariane-5 lifted off from the French Guyanese spaceport of Kourou in South America early Thursday, carrying the Indian Space Research Organisation's Insat-3A and Panamsat's Galaxy XII satellites. The 2.95 tonne Indian satellite carries 24 transponders -- 12 in C band, 6 in Ku band and the rest in the upper extended C band. The ISRO's Master Control Facility at Hassan in Karnataka, 160km from Bangalore, took control of the satellite after it was launched into transfer orbit. The launch was planned for Wednesday. But ISRO scientists, stationed at the launch site, observed during the final checks on Tuesday that the signal strength from one of the two telemetry transmitters was less than nominal. The space shot was the first of an Ariane 5 since a December 2002 mishap in which an upgraded Ariane 5 was lost on its inaugural mission. "Everyone in the Ariane family worked hard these last months so we are able to ensure the continuation of our launch services, and we are committed to giving our customers the service they need," Arianespace chairman Jean-Yves LeGall said after the launch. "Arianespace has never stopped and we will continue to provide the best service to our customers." Investigators blamed that disaster on the failure of the first stage main engine, a Vulcain 2 power plant that is more powerful than the Vulcain 1 engine used on Wednesday. The newer Ariane 5 also features a more powerful upper stage modified from the recently retired Ariane 4 family of rockets, but it never got a chance to prove itself. Boeing and Ball Aerospace to Design, Market Laser-Based Satellite CommunicationsBoeing will partner with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. to develop laser communications technologies that will improve the efficiency of satellite communications by a factor of ten or more. Under the terms of the agreement, Boeing and Ball Aerospace will jointly market laser communications technology as merchant suppliers to the U.S. government and its suppliers. "As the need continues to grow for the rapid transmission of increasingly larger amounts of information, satellite-based laser communications is vital," said Dr. Roger Roberts, senior vice president of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, Boeing's center for intelligence programs. "Our customers are moving to a network-centric environment, where platforms and systems become nodes on a super network. Near-immediate access to information on this network is critical, and laser communication technologies are capable of addressing that need." "Ball Aerospace's joint effort with Boeing in laser communications combines the unique strengths of both companies to offer the lowest risk and best value solution to the many emerging applications requiring high bandwidth communications," said Mike Cerneck, vice president and general manager of Ball Aerospace's Defense Operations. News Corp. To Buy Hughes
News
Corp, the US media group led by Rupert Murdoch, agreed to acquire controlling
interest in DirecTV, the nation's largest home satellite television service,
for $6.6 billion in a cash-and-stock transaction announced yesterday. A year
and a half ago, Murdoch was outbid for DirecTV by satellite television giant
EchoStar Communications Corp. But
federal regulators opposed the merger on antitrust grounds. "It's
very satisfying," Murdoch said in a conference call yesterday. "For a
long time we've had ambitions to be in the distribution business here and
elsewhere." DirecTV
is owned by Hughes Electronics Inc., which is in turn owned by General Motors
Inc. In the deal, News Corp. would buy the 19.9 percent of Hughes shares owned
by GM and 14 percent of publicly owned shares, giving it controlling interest
in Hughes. "From
a Hughes shareholder perspective, this is a really nice deal," GM
President G. Richard Wagoner Jr. said during the conference call. The deal
"allows us to focus on our core automotive operations," he said. If
approved by federal regulators and stockholders, the deal will complete
Murdoch's global satellite empire and create a powerful combination of
programming and distribution, giving his Fox News and Fox Network programs a
digital pipeline into 11 million U.S. homes. In the
DirecTV deal, GM receives $3.1 billion in cash, with the rest coming in News
Corp. stock. Hughes stockholders would get $14 per share in the sale, a premium
of 22 percent over yesterday's closing price of GM Class H, the Hughes tracking
stock. Murdoch
would become chairman of DirecTV and Chase Carey a News Corp. adviser, would
become president and chief executive. Carey said no other personnel changes are
planned.
The
acquisition would satisfy a hunger Murdoch has long held for DirecTV and U.S.
satellite assets. He tried to buy DirecTV in 2001 but was bested at the last
minute by EchoStar, whose $20 billion bid was favored by Hughes. EchoStar chief
executive Charles W. Ergen had hoped to add DirecTV's customers to his 8
million subscribers and create a satellite powerhouse to compete against the
cable industry. But the merger was killed last fall by the Federal
Communications Commission and the Justice Department, both of which ruled that
it would create a monopoly that could raise subscription prices with impunity.
Murdoch is not expected to face similar regulatory hurdles, antitrust experts said, because there would continue to be two competing satellite services. However, there may be concerns that News Corp. would own several channels of content and a distribution channel in DirecTV. Loral Skynet Completes Integration with Loral CyberStarLoral Skynet has completed the integration of its business activities with Loral CyberStar, allowing the new Loral Skynet to offer its customers a combination of fixed satellite and network services from a single source. "Integrating fixed satellite services with a robust networking and engineering capability is key to success in our industry," said Terry Hart, president, Loral Skynet. "The combination of Skynet and CyberStar allows the new Loral Skynet to offer complete satellite solutions. We look forward to working with our customers on new networking opportunities, in addition to continuing our heritage satellite service business." As part of the integration, Loral Skynet has named Robert A. Hedinger to the position of executive vice president of sales, marketing and client services. Reporting to Terry Hart, Mr. Hedinger is responsible for Skynet's sales and marketing strategy and will lead a team of professionals across Skynet's three product lines - Satellite Services, Network Services and Professional Services. Mr. Hedinger was previously Skynet's executive vice president of business development. US Military Launches Fifth and Final Milstar Communications SatelliteThe US military launched its fifth Milstar communications satellite, a 4.5 tonne $800-million craft designed to survive a nuclear blast and keep Pentagon commanders in touch with their forces around the world, the Air Force announced. It said the satellite was launched aboard a Titan 4B rocket from the Cape Canaveral, Florida, Air Force Station and placed in geostationary orbit. "Milstars act as relay stations in space, serving users on foot, ships, submarines and aircraft by transmitting voice communications, data, imagery and video," the industry magazine Spaceflight Now said in its on-line edition. "Milstar is the world's most secure, nuclear survivable, space-based communications system," said the magazine. "It performs processing and network routing in space, eliminating the need for vulnerable land-based relay stations and reducing the chances of communications being intercepted on the ground," it said. The satellite launched Tuesday "will complete the Milstar satellite constellation which provides near-global coverage for the President, the nation's strategic forces, the Air Force's missile warning assets and our operationally deployed military forces," said the magazine. Telesat and Storm Internet Services Bring Broadband to Rural CanadaTelesat Canada and Storm Internet Services are teaming up to provide high-speed Internet accessibility to the township of North Stormont and its 6,500 residents and business owners. The township of North Stormont, located 40 minutes southeast of Ottawa, becomes the first municipality to benefit from a joint agreement between Telesat and Storm that commits to delivering high-speed Internet services to rural and remote areas of Canada. "At Telesat, we see delivering broadband services to an underserved area, such as North Stormont, as an important step in eliminating Canada's digital divide," said Larry Boisvert, Telesat's president and CEO. "By using Telesat's satellite technology, North Stormont citizens and businesses can have access to the very best in information and communication services." North Stormont's broadband services combine Telesat's state-of-the-art satellite technology with Storm's powerful last-mile terrestrial wireless service to deliver the most comprehensive high-speed Internet coverage. The high-speed Internet service system will operate from the town of Crysler. "Both Storm and Telesat recognize the importance of broadband accessibility and its contribution to quality of life in rural communities," said Barry Williams, president and CEO of Storm Internet Services. "For several years, Storm has focused on providing last-mile connectivity for Internet services throughout Eastern Ontario - this is another demonstration of our commitment in building infrastructure with local communities." DoD and NRO To Use New Satellites to Improve Bandwidth to the FieldThe Defense Department and National Reconnaissance Office provided the first detailed look at the Transformational Communications Architecture (TCA), a next-generation space-communications infrastructure to be shared by U.S. intelligence, defense and space agencies. Rear Adm. Rand Fisher, director of naval space technology programs and head of the Transformational Communications Office within NRO, said during this week's National Space Symposium that the new multi-service architecture shares many traits with the public Internet. These include a shift from circuit to packet communications and severe bandwidth bottlenecks in the last mile to the user. Two new satellite systems will play a key role in the new architecture. TSATs, or Transformational Satellites, will be protected, Extremely High Frequency (EHF) communication satellites operating in both Ka and X bands. They may also have the capability to communicate with the Mobile User Objective System, or MUOS broadband satellite. A second new system, the Advanced Polar Satellite, is a special high-speed system handling IP and circuit-switched data, with an RF cross-link to the Advanced EHF satellite now under development. The Pentagon plans to spend at least $9.6 billion on TCA development, with $6.3 billion alone going to TSAT and APS satellites. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld opened the TCA Office last October. Howell Estes, former U.S. Space Command head, said the rationale for combining NRO and NASA resources was to "close the last mile to the tactical war-fighter, by extending bandwidth to forces on the move." Fisher said there's a long wish-list for TCA, with some service branches placing a high priority on nuclear survivability while others want a dynamically adjustable communication system capable of supporting thin clients. Ideally, a single prime contractor would help coordinate these requirements, Fisher said, adding that he doubted whether a single corporate contractor could juggle all the information necessary to satisfy NRO, Pentagon and NASA demands. Troy Meinke, deputy project leader in the Milsatcom Program Office at the Air Force Space and Missiles Center, said planning is already underway for incorporating laser-based inter-satellite communications, as well as optical links to aircraft, into the overall TCA network. The Pentagon has so far earmarked $260 million program funding for development of an Airborne Optical Satcom Terminal for TCA. If the Defense Department can develop effective network-management and provisioning software, the TCA network will be able to perform the same type of quality-of-service prioritization, even across agencies, that is performed in advanced Internet subnets. Ideally, Meinke said, two agencies could sign a service-level agreement for bandwidth in the same way carriers or Internet service providers do today. Fisher said the TCA program's biggest asset is the elimination of parallel and superfluous space programs across military and civilian agencies. "If I can glue an architecture together with common standards and protocols, I care less about the specific organizations developing this," Fisher said. NRO Director Peter Teets, a former Lockheed Martin Corp. official, told a crowd of 3,000 at a keynote dinner Tuesday evening that TCA will "remove both bandwidth and access as constraints to the warfighter." He added, "The effort is not about satellites, not about ground terminals, but about a whole new architecture to support our war-fighting efforts." Still, bandwidth remains a concern. Prior to the opening of the war in Iraq, Pentagon officials were scrambling to lease commercial satellite communications capacity. Demand for broadband capacity has soared as planners seek to move real-time data and video from U.S. Central Command headquarters to commanders in the field. On Command Launches Satellite Technology for Delivery of Content to More Than 270,000 Hotel RoomsOn Command Corporation, a provider of in-room interactive entertainment for the hotel industry and its guests, announced today that after successful testing in the fourth quarter of 2002 it has begun installing technology to enable satellite delivery of content to more than 270,000 hotel rooms throughout the United States, making it the largest provider of satellite and digital technology to the hotel industry. On Command has partnered with Ascent Media Group of Santa Monica, California for the management and delivery of all satellite content to their hotel rooms. Ascent Media Group is also performing content preparation services for On Command, just as it currently does for several major Hollywood studios. Satellite technology will enable the company to reduce its costs for updating its digital hotel room base. "Our current distribution efforts require us to ship directly to the hotel for manual installation," said Chris Sophinos, president and chief executive officer of On Command. "By moving to satellite updates, we will be able to reduce our distribution expenses by nearly $3 million because we will no longer need air and ground distribution. We'll be able to send updates directly to the hotel systems via satellite." Boeing Restructures Launch ServicesBoeing has restructured Boeing Launch Services to combine strategic planning, business development and sales for government and commercial customers under one integrated organization. Boeing officials cited the need for innovative approaches to meet the current challenges of the global launch market. "This new BLS structure enhances our customer focus by taking full advantage of our best people and practices to meet all of our customers' needs," said Will Trafton, vice president and general manager of Boeing Expendable Launch Systems. "The first launch of the Delta IV for the U.S. Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle contract demonstrated this and our commitment to customer satisfaction." The restructured BLS organization, with headquarters in Huntington Beach, Calif., is responsible for marketing and sales of the Sea Launch and Delta family of launch vehicles to Boeing national security, civil space and commercial customers. The BLS organization also provides strategic planning and business development for Boeing Expendable Launch Systems. "In today's market, there are awesome challenges facing launch providers worldwide," said Jayne Schnaars, vice president of BLS. "Combining our government and commercial marketing teams ensures that we have the right talent in place to address these challenges. Our customers' mission success is the most important element of our job as we continue to ensure that our products are the most reliable on the market today, tomorrow and in the future."
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