Satellite News

Inmarsat Government, a wholly owned subsidiary of Inmarsat plc, announced that it has been awarded a contract to continue providing Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The contract is valued at up to US$3.5 million over five years, which includes an initial contract period of one year and the option to extend the agreement in four one-year increments.

Leading companies from the Spanish telecommunications sector and the movie industry have teamed up in order to modernise the cinematographic contents distribution . It is estimated that, at the outset, they will be able to distribute 20,000 film copies and 30,000 trailers per year to 2,000 movie theatres all over the country, using the Hispasat 1E satellite and with no need for hardware supports.

Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) Limited has selected Newtec to provide a Ka-band hub platform including terminals to offer B2B and B2C broadband services.

Boeing recently shipped its fifth Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite, which will provide the U.S. Air Force with faster transmission of airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance imagery, to Cape Canaveral in Florida for this year’s planned launch.

Both primary payloads for Vega’s second flight have arrived at French Guiana, positioning them for integration on the light-lift launcher – which has marked another step in preparation for its mission in April from the Spaceport.

A Proton M launch vehicle is currently being processed at Baikonur to loft SatMex 8, a Mexican communications satellite, later in March.

The second Lockheed Martin built Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO-2) spacecraft was encapsulated into its payload fairing on 4 March in preparation for a 19 March lift-off aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity continues to move forward with assessment and recovery from a memory glitch that affected the rover’s A-side computer. Curiosity has two computers that are redundant of one another. The rover is currently operating using the B-side computer, which is operating as expected.