January 2015

Boeing 737’s on the production line. Photo: Boeing [Via Satellite 01-20-2015] Global Eagle Entertainment’s (GEE) Ku-band satellite connectivity system provisions will now be offerable on new Boeing 737 airplanes — the most popular commercial aircraft offering. The two companies are working on line-fit installation feasibility for catalogue offering consideration. Airlines ordering new Boeing 737 airplanes will then have the option…

Telecom Cook Islands team. Photo: O3b [Via Satellite 01-20-2015] O3b Networks anticipates that its rollout of satellite services among Pacific Islands will surpass fiber for international connectivity to individual countries in 2015. As of January 2015, the company has contracted 5 Gbps of total capacity to the Pacific region, according to a statement. O3b cited…

Brig. Gen. Peter F. Hoene. Photo: U.S. Air Force [Via Satellite 01-20-2015] SES Government Solutions (SES GS) has appointed Brig Gen Peter Hoene USAF (Ret) as new president and CEO, effective March 2. Hoene succeeds current President and CEO Tip Osterthaler, who plans to retire after nine years with the company. Hoene joined SES GS…

Quartet Begins Race to Final, Orange Africa Cup of Nations Qualifiers. Photo: Confederation of African Football [Via Satellite 01-20-2015] Spacecom has been selected for broadcast services from its Amos 5 satellite at 17 degrees east for the bi-annual football championship competition, the Confederation of African Football‘s (CAF) Orange Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). The competition…

KVH Industries Chicago Ill. office. Photo: KVH [Via Satellite 01-16-2015] KVH Industries is hopeful that new High Throughput Satellite (HTS) systems coming online in 2015 will bring additional capacity for maritime applications, KVH President and CEO Martin Kits van Heyningen said Jan. 14 at the Needham Growth Conference in New York City. The company has…

A Gogo 2Ku dual link antenna. Photo: Gogo [Via Satellite 01-16-2015] Gogo has received regulatory approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate its next generation In-Flight Connectivity (IFC) technology – 2Ku. The FCC blanket approval enables Gogo to operate its 2Ku system on 1,000 aircraft and clears the path forward to launching…

A Gilat Teleport. Photo: Gilat. [Via Satellite 01-16-2015] O3b Networks, operator of a constellation of 12 High Throughput Satellites in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), has certified Gilat Satellite Network’s SkyEdge 2 meoEdge high-performance MEO/O3b satellite terminal. During the certification process, O3b confirmed there was zero packet loss during handovers between satellites. Gilat’s meoEdge product is…

A Galileo IOV satellite. Photo: DLR [Via Satellite 01-16-2015] The United Kingdom Space Agency announced that U.K. Innovate is offering as much as $1.5 million in support of feasibility studies for new receiver technologies for Europe’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Galileo. Businesses can win a share of the funding for projects the agency expects…

An image taken by Meteor M2. Photo: Roscosmos [Via Satellite 01-16-2015] The Russian remote-sensing satellite Meteor M2, launched on July 8, 2014 aboard a Soyuz rocket with six other spacecraft, is close to finishing a lengthy series of in-orbit tests. According to TsENKI, the testing requires extra time due to the number and complexity of…

This annotated image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a bright feature interpreted as the United Kingdom’s Beagle 2 Lander, which was never heard from after its expected Dec. 25, 2003, landing. The image was taken by the orbiter’s HiRISE camera on Dec. 15, 2014.Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/University of Leicester [Via Satellite 01-16-2015] NASA’s Mars…