satcomnetwork-blog

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Canada’s Radarsat-1 experiences anomaly, may not recover

Radarsat-1, the oldest Earth observation satellite of Canada, has experienced a recent anomaly which might render the spacecraft unrecoverable. Due to the incident, the Canadian Space Agency put the satellite into “safe mode” to allow them to conduct an investigation. Operating for more than a decade now, the Canadian satellite is equipped with a synthetic aperture radar which enables Radarsat-1 to capture images of the Earth through clouds, smoke and haze. All information gathered by the satellite have been by government and commercial customers to help them track the effects of global climate change, as well as for resource and disaster management purposes. But due to the recent anomaly, the Canadian Space Agency decided to stop all order for new imagery, but continues to provide archived data. Thanks to Radarsat-2’s functionality, the space agency does not see any problems or possible impact on the country’s security. Unlike Radarsat-1 which is owned and operated by the Canadian government, Radarsat-2 is controlled by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA). The company received partial funding for Radarsat-2’s production and launch through a signed agreement with the government. In exchange, MDA provides data to the government as long as the spacecraft is functional. The Canadian Space Agency is currently developing a new fleet of Radarsat satellites set to be launched in 2018. You may also want to read:

RT Logic debuts new products for satellite control centers

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Advantech Wireless introduces next-generation satcom product

Satellite manufacturer Advantech Wireless is proud to announce the debut of the New Millennium Series VSAT Hub for HTS -- the company’s most powerful next-gen satellite communications product. Developing upon the Discovery Series of DVB-RCS Hubs, a single rack of the Millennium Series can be designed so that it supports upwards of 20,000 remote terminals and 775 Mbps of traffic to the remotes, spread across up to five various transponder/satellites and 480 TDMA carriers. One rack can receive up to 240 Mbps of IP traffic-generated by the remote terminal population. In a company statement, Advantech Wireless PLM Director John Landovskis explained: “A powerful feature of the Millennium Hub is its redundancy capability. On the Forward Link, the standard design incorporates a 1:5 scheme, whereby one Forward Link chain operates in a Hot Standby mode, ready to automatically takeover in the event of a malfunction of any of the 5 active Forward Link systems. Similarly, for the Return Link, the standard design provides for a 1:n redundancy scheme”. This new series of VSAT Hub is designed to function with all fixed satellite frequency bands (C, X, Ku, Ka-band) and support all of Advantech Wireless’ family of Satellite Interactive Terminals (SITs).

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China Telecom Satellite, CMSCG collaborate to offer Thuraya mobile satellite products, services

China Mobile Satellite Communications Group (CMSCG) has recently teamed up with China Telecom Satellite to bring Thuraya’s mobile satellite products and services. Beginning April, the two Chinese companies will distribute the Thuraya SatSleeve, and the “1349” mobile satellite sim card will be available for commercial use. Jimmy Zhang, chief executive officer of CMSCG said that the official launch of CTS’ mobile satellite service will mark the transformation of the company’s original 1349 service into an official service to their customers. He added, “The response to CTS’ service has been positive and attracted customers from the maritime, oil and gas sectors and disaster relief. We are looking to establish our position as a leading service provider of mobile satellite telecommunication services in China, and look forward to selling the Thuraya SatSleeve, a module that transforms iPhone into a dual mode satellite phone. An initial order of 800 sets of Thuraya SatSleeve has been placed.” “The partnership with CMSCG to market Thuraya’s products will strengthen our product portfolio,” CTS Enterprise Development Department Director Xiao Jinghou said in a statement. “We are delighted to offer them to our customer base of 62 million mobile subscribers, a fair portion of which is considered as our target users of the 1349 Thuraya mobile satellite communications service.” China’s demand for satellite communication products and services are anticipated to increase exponentially from industries like civil defense, disaster recovery and maritime, Thuraya’s regional director for Asia Bilal El Hamoui said.

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SES wins contract to provide satcom services to Europe’s Galileo

SES TechCom, the service company of Satellite Services (SES S.A), recently closed a deal with BT to deliver satellite communications services for the Galileo Data Dissemination Network (GDDN) in support of the Galileo Operator Spaceopal. The agreement with BT includes SES TechCom’s deployment, maintenance and support of Satcom ground infrastructure at different remote locations across the globe, including Antarctica, as well as providing satellite capacity, monitoring and controlling the GDDN satellite network. Aside from being GDDN’s communication service provider, BT is also responsible for the design, deployment and operation. Meanwhile, Spaceopal is the contractor of Galileo’s Operations. Managed by the European Space Agency (ESA) on behalf of the EU, Galileo is the initiative of Europe for a global satellite navigation system. It is specifically designed to deliver service under civilian control. GDDN interconnects the two Galileo Control Centers in Italy and Germany to an extensive network of sensor stations, uplink stations and Telemetry, Tracking and Control (TT&C) stations distributed across the globe. It also delivers connectivity to Galileo’s satellite test and launch facilities, network management facilities, external entities and security monitoring centers. In a statement, SES TechCom Managing Director Gerhard Bethscheider noted: "The selection of SES TechCom for this prestigious project illustrates the reputation which the Luxembourg Space industry has acquired since 2005, when the Grand-Duchy became a full member of the European Space Agency. We are delighted to work closely together with our partners BT and Spaceopal on the realisation of Europe`s most prestigious satellite navigation constellation."