Satellite News

Sirius Satellite Radio has reported that it ended 2006 with approximately 6,024,000 subscribers, an 82 percent increase over the company’s 2005 ending subscriber base of 3,316,560.

Northrop Grumman Corporation said it will develop system definition requirements for the U.S. Air Force’s Alternate Infrared Satellite System (AIRSS) that would provide uninterrupted space-based early missile detection.

Integral Systems, Inc. announced that it has been awarded a sole-source contract to upgrade Taiwan’s NSPO’s (National Space Organisation’s) existing mission operations system to simultaneously operate the NSPO’s new Argo satellite and the existing FORMOSAT-2 and FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC spacecraft.

Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems delivered the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) unit for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) to Ball Aerospace & Technology Co. for integration and testing on the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) spacecraft.

Boeing announced that GOES-13 (GOES-N), the first of three Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) that will support more accurate prediction and tracking of severe storms and other weather phenomena, has completed on-orbit testing and has been accepted by NASA.

South Korea plans to launch its first KSLV (Korea Space Launch Vehicle) next year, becoming the world’s ninth country to do so, officials said.

The People’s Republic of China has upgraded the facilities at its the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Xinhua reported Dec. 30. New technologies such as remote control, a 3-dimensional display system and…

In the aftermath of the Dec. 26 earthquake in Southeast Asia, regional and international telcos turned to satellite technology to ameliorate the loss of connectivity through submarine cables. Intelsat busied itself to fill in service gaps, Nick…