Satellite News

Globalstar, Inc. announced that, anticipating the transition to its Globalstar II second-generation constellation, it has launched a new satellite airtime rate plan which will provide new and existing customers in the United States with unlimited satellite voice minutes for calls to the US, Canada and Caribbean.

VEGA Group PLC, an independent Programme and System Assurance Company, has been awarded a frame contract by the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, to provide services for their navigation activities.

The Experiment Logistics Module Pressurised Section for the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) recently arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

NASA said it has established a requirements baseline for the Orion crew exploration vehicle.

Autonomous navigation software developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) drove the NASA Mars Rover “Opportunity” last week in the software’s first live test on the Red Planet.

Iridium Satellite announced a new network quality guarantee programme for customers that promises credits of up to 100 minutes of airtime, as well as three months free subscription fees, if the Iridium network fails to complete properly initiated voice calls from customers’ new Iridium handsets.

The DVB Steering Board has approved the DVB-SH (Satellite services to Handhelds) specification.

Alcatel-Lucent and NXP Semiconductors announced that they are strengthening their collaboration in the framework of Alcatel-Lucent’s Unlimited Mobile TV solution.