Showing 101 - 120 of 297 results
Purchasing the Right Technology Ensures SATCOM Supremacy
Judging from the omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 2018, Congress and the U.S. Department of Defense understand how critical space is to the nation’s military. According to an article in Space News, the fiscal 2018 budget contains additional millions of dollars for space that the Pentagon did not even request. Appropriators explained ... Read More
U.S. Air Force Increases Focus on Space
The U.S. Air Force has its focus set on space these days, as evidenced by its recently released Fiscal Year 2019 budget and an ongoing review of the military’s space operations. Both look promising. “The Air Force’s FY-19 budget accelerates our efforts to deter, defend and prevail against anyone who seeks to deny our ability ... Read More
New Reality in Space Driving Change in European Defense Policy
Decades of relative tranquility in space have come to an end. The possibility of state-on-state conflict has become part of military planning, making flexible and continuous connectivity more critical than ever for defence forces around the world. The cybersecurity threat to SATCOM has also increased, both from hostile governments and non-state ... Read More
A Clear Path Forward for Military Organizations to Leverage HTS
In the past year, Intelsat has proven the capabilities of its new constellation of Intelsat EpicNG high-throughput satellites (HTS) and recently put into service its fifth spacecraft. Tests and customer experience have demonstrated a path forward for military organizations to leverage EpicNG and realize the benefits of HTS. Intelsat continues ... Read More
Government SATCOM – Change is Coming, One Way or Another
Disruption or innovation – which term most accurately describes the government and military markets for commercial SATCOM? That’s the question posed by a thought-provoking article published last week by research firm Northern Sky Research. The article addresses head-on something not often discussed openly by commercial providers: the ... Read More
Our first Intelsat Epic satellite has been in space a little over two years now, and we have launched four more since then. With five of these high-throughput satellites (HTS) in orbit and being used by our customers, we have gained quite a bit of both test data and real-world experience demonstrating the capabilities and ... Read More
Our first Intelsat Epic satellite has been in space a little over two years now, and we have launched four more since then. With five of these high-throughput satellites (HTS) in orbit and being used by our customers, we have gained quite a bit of both test data and real-world experience demonstrating the capabilities and ... Read More
Adopting a New Procurement Model Will Not Compromise Network Security
For more than a decade, commercial satellite providers have been working with the U.S. military and Congress to shift the government away from the mindset that it needed to own its own satellites in order to meet its mission and assure network security. A recent article in Space News, focusing on an Air Force budget ... Read More
Studies Prove Superior Performance of HTS for Government Customers
High-throughput satellite (HTS) constellations have quickly become transformative technology for satellite communications, far surpassing the bandwidth speed and throughput possible with existing satellite communications. Earlier this month SatCom Frontier published a story explaining the difference between open vs. closed HTS architecture. Open ... Read More
Sixty Years of Technology in Space – What’s Changed?
Sixty years ago, the United States successfully launched the nation’s first satellite into space. The satellite, Explorer 1, was tiny by today’s standards: 80 inches long, a bit over 6 inches in diameter, and weighing just under 31 pounds. But unlike the USSR’s Sputnik satellite launched a few months earlier, which simply demonstrated the ... Read More
New and Better SatCom Options Meet Demanding Connectivity Requirements for Helicopters
Recognizing the unique capabilities of helicopters for a wide range of missions, U.S. and foreign governments are actively procuring new aircraft or refreshing their existing fleets. As they rely on these assets for a variety of operations spanning both civilian and military applications, in contested areas, providing broadband connectivity with ... Read More
Open System HTS is Best for Government Needs
Over the past couple of years, multiple commercial satellite operators have begun launching high-throughput satellite (HTS) constellations. These next-generation satellites provide far more throughput than existing wideband satellites, with increases in throughput 2 to 6 times the bandwidth equivalent of conventional commercial or Wideband Global ... Read More
Improve European Defence with New Commercial Space Capabilities
Flexible and continuous connectivity, especially in contested environments, is a critical priority for defence forces around the world. No nation in Europe can go it alone, so secure, interoperable communications networks are mandatory considering today’s geopolitical realities. For these reasons, on 13 November 2017 ministers from 23 member ... Read More
2018 in Space – Progress and Promise
The space industry is going through an exciting period of innovation and growth. New technology such as high-throughput satellites (HTS) have transformed space architecture and fundamentally changed what had been a fairly static sector. Technology in space is belatedly catching up to the profound advancements in terrestrial IT networks, something ... Read More
Military innovation demands state-of-the-art satellite connectivity for maritime applications
The technologies military organizations use in the field and at sea are only as effective as the communications infrastructure working in the background. As the Office of Naval Research (ONR) accelerates its development into innovative technologies for the transmission of mission-critical data, the need for state-of-the-art satellite connectivity ... Read More
Major Changes for the U.S. Space Enterprise
After much discussion from policymakers, lawmakers, industry and academia, the FY18 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) instituted the most sweeping changes to the organization and management of the U.S. space enterprise since the Honorable Donald Rumsfeld Commissions of 2001 and 2007. While falling short of establishing a separate Space ... Read More
Happy Holidays from SatCom Frontier
The SatCom Frontier editorial team and everyone at Intelsat General Corp. would like to send holiday best wishes to our online visitors. Thank you for being part of our success in 2017! A special thanks and best wishes go out to America’s servicemen and women. At any given time, you are stationed in countries around ... Read More
Pentagon Challenged to Procure a New Satellite in Less Than 12 Years
Twelve years. That’s how long it can take the Pentagon to plan, design, build and launch an on-orbit satellite. By contrast, satellite communications providers like Intelsat can get a new telecommunications satellite from the drawing board to service in around 36 months. It’s no wonder that U.S. Air Force General John Hyten expressed his ... Read More
DISA Opens the Door to Reverse Industry Day
For the most part, the Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA’s) recent Industry Day was business as usual. DISA representatives highlighted the need for lower prices, higher capabilities, more throughput, and easier connectivity. But there was one thing that stood out: DISA’s desire to have a Reverse Industry Day. A Reverse Industry ... Read More
A Dynamic Commercial Space Industry Needs STEM Skills
The world’s first satellite, Sputnik I, went into orbit 60 years ago and was about the size of a beach ball. Its four antennas transmitted radio pulses. The most recent Intelsat EpicNG satellite that went into orbit this past September is as big as a school bus and can deliver 45 Gbps of broadband to ... Read More
