Industry Latest

BRICS leaders from left: Rousseff, Medvedev, Singh, Hu and Zuma. Photo: Wikipedia [Via Satellite 11-25-2014] Representing close to half the world’s population, the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are markets the satellite industry has been watching closely to gauge how their national growth rates correlate to that of the…

The spacecraft being prepared for shipment to Vandenberg Air Force Base by the team at the Jet Propulsion Lab. The lightweight and compact AstroMesh reflector and boom assembly are stowed in preparation for launch. Photo: Northrop Grumman [Via Satellite 11-25-2014] Northrop Grumman has provided the AstroMesh reflector to Vandenberg Air Force Base for NASA’s Soil…

SES Playout Center. Photo: SES [Via Satellite 11-25-2014] Turkshow, a German-based television channel dedicated to providing films, series and lifestyle programs reflecting Turkish culture, has signed a contract with SES to broadcast throughout Western Europe from Astra at the 19.2 degrees east orbital position. The majority of TurkShow’s programs are in the Turkish language with…

An Eagle Vision 5 antenna at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. Photo: Airman 1st Class Yash Rojas. [Via Satellite 11-25-2014] The United States Air Force has awarded Airbus Defence and Space with a system evolution and maintenance contract for its five Eagle Vision ground stations. Eagle Vision is a lightweight deployable, commercial satellite imagery downlink…

MSC Divina ship. Photo: MSC [Via Satellite 11-25-2014] Marlink has installed the Marlink Global C-band iDirect service on MSC Cruises fleet of 12 ships. The upgrade brings iDX 3.2 software and the X7 modem from iDirect for improved VSAT connectivity. Marlink completed the installation in October following successful tests of the modem in August. MSC…

Photo: NASA [Via Satellite 11-25-2014] NASA has opened the registration process for its Cube Quest challenge, a CubeSat competition focused on developing space exploration technology. Competitors will vie for a piece of the $5 million prize along with a chance at launching their CubeSat to the Moon and beyond as a secondary payload on the…

A solar prominence, caused by powerful magnetic forces on the surface of the sun. Photo: Solar Dynamics Observatory/NASA [Via Satellite 11-24-2014] Several agencies of the United States government are interested in greater amounts of data on solar activity. Flares and dramatic high energy bursts called Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) can and do bombard Earth’s atmosphere…

XCOR’s XR-5H25 engine. Photo: XCOR [Via Satellite 11-24-2014] XCOR has successfully conducted hot fire testing of the XR-5H25 engine’s regeneratively cooled thrust chamber, with both liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants supplied in pump-fed mode through the company’s proprietary piston pump technology. The engine is under development for United Launch Alliance (ULA) under the liquid…

An OTE building. Photo: OTE [Via Satellite 11-21-2014] OTE, a telecoms operator in Greece, has selected Eutelsat’s KA-SAT to deliver its new satellite broadband service to homes across Greece. The OTE Satellite Internet Service, aims to deliver download speeds of up to 22 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 6 Mbps. The Greek operator…

A Thuraya XT handset in use. Photo: Thuraya. [Via Satellite 11-24-2014] The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Dubai Police has launched a new emergency service for the Thuraya XT handset. The Thuraya SOS service enables users to send a preprogrammed Short Message Service (SMS), or text message, by pressing the soft key on the right side…