E-letter: News Feed

NASA has unveiled its plans to develop the technology and infrastructure to retrieve asteroids for human research.

Orbital Sciences is preparing for the first-ever launch of its 135-foot-tall Antares rocket. The Antares is scheduled for liftoff at 5:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 17, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Dish Network’s proposed deal for just under $26 billion to acquire Sprint Nextel (Sprint) is potentially a huge transformative deal on the U.S. communications landscape, which has direct implications to the satellite industry.

International Launch Services (ILS) has successfully delivered Telesat’s Anik G1 satellite into orbit on an ILS Proton launch vehicle.

Spacecom has announced that it has won a three-year contract worth $6.5 million from one of Africa's largest Internet Communications Service Providers (ISPs) for provision of Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSAT) satellite services from the AMOS-5 satellite located at the 17 degrees east orbital position.

DMC International Imaging (DMCii) has signed an agreement with Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) that will increase the volume of imagery acquired and the speed in which it can be delivered.

Arianespace has announced it generated revenues of 1.33 billion euros ($1.74 billion) in 2012, one the highlights of the company’s latest set of annual results.

Elara Comunicaciones has begun implementing a large-scale satellite network to bring voice and data service to 2,717 towns in rural southeast Mexico.

DISH Network Corporation has announced its intentions to acquire the third largest wireless carrier in the United States.

The U.S. Air Force has selected Ball Aerospace & Technologies to perform risk reduction work on the next generation of microwave sounding and imaging instruments for the Weather Satellite Follow-on program.

ViaSat has acquired privately held LonoCloud, an early-stage company with expertise in cloud networking software.

RigNet, a provider of managed remote communications solutions to the oil and gas industry, has announced it has entered into a global value-added reseller agreement with SnapTV AS, a Norwegian specialist in maritime and offshore infotainment and collaborative media.

The Over-The-Top (OTT) video market is now worth over $8 billion, according to the latest research by ABI Research. Major markets such as America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific have experienced year-on-year growth in excess of 50 percent in 2012. Is the strong growth in this market ultimately going to impact the satellite market?

STMicroelectronics has announced that its Teseo II single-chip satellite-tracking ICs performed successfully in the first ground location test using Europe’s independent navigation system, Galileo.

GlobeCast Americas has expanded its solution-building capabilities in the continent with three strategic appointments to sales positions.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates has signed a CA$8.3 million contract with Canada’s Department of National Defense (DND) to extend its operational support of DND’s Automated Airline Hosting and Aircraft Tasking System (AAHATS).

MEASAT Satellite Systems has announced an agreement with Martial Arts Networks to distribute the Martial Arts TV HD channel via the MEASAT-3a satellite.

The University of Hawaii is planning the first satellite launch from the islands of Hawaii using the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai. The military has used the facility to test missiles but never a satellite.

The Obama administration’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget request presented this week included a proposal to pursue an environmental satellite championed by Al Gore.

SkyStream FZ has renewed a multi-year deal on SES' NSS-6 satellite at 95 degrees east to provide reliable connectivity to its maritime, and oil & gas customers via secure VSAT networks.

Gilat Satellite Networks and Hispasat have signed a deal to expand the Spanish satellite operator’s broadband satellite-based network with an additional SkyEdge II system.

TV Integração, the first Brazilian affiliate of TV Globo, has deployed Thomson Video Networks' ViBE CP6000 contribution platform and RD5000 MPEG-2/4 receiver decoder to provide video contribution services to more than 5.4 million viewers.

RRsat Global Communications Network has announced the launch of a new content management and distribution solution that enables major international broadcasters to reach cable headends and direct-to-home (DTH) television broadcasting in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The Rural Telecommunications Group (RTG) has appointed of Andrew Silberstein, senior vice president and general manager of Globecomm Network Services to the RTG Board of Directors.

Boeing and Honeywell have signed a new technical services agreement as they look to come up with the next generation of high-speed in-flight connectivity services on passenger devices such as iPads, smartphones, tablets and laptops.

Boeing is introducing a new line of small satellites through its research arm Boeing Phantom Works. The Phantom Phoenix line of satellites would weight up to 1,000 kilos and can be adapted for short-term experiments or operational missions lasting seven or more years.

United Airlines is one of the world’s biggest airlines. In total, United Airlines and United Express operate an average of 5,472 flights a day to 381 airports across six continents. In 2012, both lines operated nearly two million flights carrying 140 million customers.

Lockheed Martin has announced successful integration of two of the most important components onto its fourth Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite for the U.S. Navy.

Orbital Sciences has selected ITT Exelis to manufacture, assemble, test and deliver three composite-based bus structures for its GEOStar-3 communications satellite platform.

Eurochannel, an international TV channel dedicated to European films and series, has selected the Eutelsat 16A satellite to broadcast its signal across sub-Saharan Africa.