Communications Satellites News

Inmarsat has launched its latest I-6 F2 spacecraft from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.According to the mobile satellite communications specialist, which offers communications services in the air, at sea, and on land, the satellite launch saw I-6 F2 lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, reaching a top speed of almost 40,000km/h as it left Earth above central Africa. The satellite will now spend several months traveling to its geostationary orbit, 36,000km above the Equator, using its onboard electric propulsion system.

“All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don’t know by what you do”Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of WellingtonIt is hard to get past headlines painting the portrait of a world besieged physically and economically by a medical crisis on a global scale and a nation that has turned the national spotlight onto the fundamentals of its constitutional democracy, including the persistence of racism, the right to protest and the character of local and national security forces in the United States.

China successfully launched a rocket from a ship at sea for the first time on Wednesday, state media reported, the latest step forward in its ambitious space programme.The Long March 11 rocket blasted off from a platform on a large semi-submersible barge in the Yellow Sea just after midday (0400 GMT), state media said.The small rocket, designed to be deployed quickly and from mobile launch sites such as a ship, carried seven satellites, including one that measures sea-surface winds to forecast typhoons.The rocket also carried two communications satellites belonging to China 125…

Fugro has introduced its high accuracy G2+ service for the GNSS augmentation field, the company announced today. The G2+ service is designed to benefit offshore operators around the globe who require positioning and measurement accuracy at the centimeter level. G2+ is an enhancement of Fugro’s G2 service (based on GPS and GLONASS) and utilizes highly advanced GNSS augmentation algorithms developed in-house. The code and carrier-phase signals transmitted by GPS and GLONASS satellites are monitored globally by Fugro’s worldwide network of reference stations. These observations are processed centrally in real-time using the company’s proprietary algorithms to generate precise corrections which are used to augment the standard signals broadcast by GPS and GLONASS satellites.

Thuraya Telecommunications Company, an international mobile satellite services operator, announced the appointment of Mr. Stephen O’Neill, President of Boeing Satellite Systems International, Inc (BSSI), as a member of the Corporate Board of Directors. BSSI is one of Thuraya’s strategic shareholders and manufacturer of Thuraya’s leading-edge commercial satellites. The appointment of Mr. Stephen O’Neill will further enhance the partnership between BSSI and Thuraya that traces back to the company’s inception. Mr. O’ Neill has over 30 years of experience in the aerospace industry.

In an effort to expand its communications capacity and take advantage of affordable, emerging commercial satellite services, the United States Coast Guard is in the process of deploying the TracPhone V7 and mini-VSAT Broadband service from KVH Industries, Inc., (Nasdaq: KVHI) on its 110-ft and 225-ft cutters. Intended to replace older satellite communications systems and services, the KVH integrated antenna and service solution is now offering increased bandwidth, reduced operating costs, and seamless coverage in key operational areas for the Coast Guard vessels. The mini-VSAT Broadband service, along with the KVH TracPhone V7 antenna, comprise the an end-to-end 24-inch VSAT antenna, service, and support package available for maritime communications.

The U.S. Coast Guard announced its intention to explore increased use of space as a tool to enhance awareness of activities in ports, coastal waters and their approaches. The Coast Guard has been studying the feasibility of receiving maritime automatic identification system (AIS) signals from space since 2001. In May 2004 the Coast Guard contracted with ORBCOMM, a satellite data communications company, to develop and build the capability to receive process and forward AIS signals from space via an AIS receiver onboard a communications satellite. In addition, ORBCOMM will provide the ground systems capable of processing the AIS signals and relaying the collected messages to the Coast Guard.

The market for commercial communications satellites is expected to be worth $25.4 billion over the next 10 years, according to Forecast International’s recently completed study "Commercial Communications Satellites: 2005-2014." Also anticipated within the next few years, is the long awaited rebound in the commercial communications market. Fueling this recovery will not only be the growing market for the application of key technologies and services to the commercial consumer but also government reliance on commercial capacity. Forecast International predicts that 224 commercial communications satellites destined for geostationary or medium Earth orbit will be constructed over the next 10 years, at an estimated total value of about $25.4 billion.