May 2015

New Mexico’s Spaceport America. Photo: Spaceport America [Via Satellite 05-29-2015] X2nSat has announced future plans to build a satellite gateway at Spaceport America, which may signal the beginning of a revival for the embattled New Mexico facility. The companies have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for the satellite communications provider to enter into a…

SSTL’s new Satellite Operations Center. Photo: SSTL [Via Satellite 05-29-2015] Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) opened its recently completed Spacecraft Operations Center (SOC) this week ahead of a series of satellite launches. Four SSTL-built satellites are slated to launch in the coming months and the company plans to inaugurate the facility during the first phase…

The Sentinel 1B satellite’s antenna. Photo: Airbus Defence and Space. [Via Satellite 05-29-2015] Airbus Defence and Space has shipped the Sentinel 1B satellite’s C-band radar instrument to prime contractor Thales Alenia Space (TAS) Italy for integration and testing. Once complete, the Copernicus-program satellite is scheduled for launch in 2016, following which it will join the…

Photo: Exelis [Via Satellite 05-29-2015] Harris Corporation finished its previously announced $4.75 billion acquisition of Exelis. Each outstanding share of Exelis common stock converted into the right to receive $16.625 in cash and 0.1025 of a share of Harris common stock. Harris shareholders own 85 percent of the combined company and Exelis shareholders own 15…

[Via Satellite 05-29-2015] Comtech EF Data’s commercially available Advanced Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) Solutions are now deployed and supporting multiple customer installations using O3b Networks’ satellite system. The in-service customers are located in the Cook Islands, Pakistan and Malaysia, and have deployed point-to-multipoint networks using O3b Networks’ Ka-band Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite systems…

Orbital ATK’s Bacchus facility in Utah. Photo: Orbital ATK [Via Satellite 05-28-2015] Orbital ATK anticipates opportunities to bid on another six satellite opportunities this year, and continues to expect in its launch business to see the first flight of the re-engined Antares rocket in March 2016. In the company’s first post-merger quarterly earnings call, David…

Artist rendition of the Intelsat 33e satellite. Photo: Intelsat [Via Satellite 05-28-2015] Intelsat has introduced a new customizable, managed mobility service for maritime, aero and government verticals designed to simplify the launch of new services and reduce costs. Dubbed IntelsatOne Flex, the service leverages iDirect’s Velocity ground infrastructure platform for scalability, performance and higher throughput.…

Arianespace’s VA223 mission for DirecTV. Photo: Arianespace [Via Satellite 05-28-2015] Arianespace successfully launched two satellites for DirecTV on May 27 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. The mission carried the DirecTV 15 satellite, built by Airbus Defence and Space on the Eurostar E3000 platform, and the Sky Mexico 1 (SKYM 1) satellite built on Orbital ATK’s…

Hughes’ HT1300 satellite router. Photo: Hughes [Via Satellite 05-28-2015] Hughes Networks Systems has released a new high-throughput router for the company’s Jupiter system, designed to operate over C and Ku band, as well as Ka-band satellite capacity. The HT1300 enables use of the Jupiter system with conventional satellite capacity while creating a path for seamless…

[Via Satellite 05-28-2015] KT Skylife, one of South Korea’s top satellite broadcast providers, has deployed Ultra-HD Set-Top-Boxes (STBs) built on Broadcom‘s single-chip High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) 4K/Ultra-HD satellite solution, the BCM7376. The single-chip BCM7376 delivers video at 60 Frames Per Second (FPS) with 10-bit color and four times the resolution of conventional HD displays.…