Canada-based exactEarth has teamed up with Harris to bring into service five additional satellites as part of the former’s automatic identification system satellite constellation designed to support the delivery of a real-time ship tracking service to the maritime market. The addition of five more exactEarth satellites brings the total number of operational systems in the […] More

Liliana Ortega, a former vice president and bid director at Balfour Beatty Investments, has joined Parsons as VP and senior bid director of the construction and engineering services firm’s enterprises segment. She will oversee Parsons Enterprises’ efforts to identify investment opportunities, develop strategy and manage procurement and bids, the company said Monday. “Liliana’s development and […] More

Orbital ATK has opened a 60,000-square-foot engineering facility next to the company’s satellite assembly and testing hub in Gilbert, Arizona. The company said Wednesday it aims to create 155 full-time positions over the next five years through the expansion project that will increase Orbital ATK’s total footprint in Arizona to nearly 850,000 square feet. Rick Kettner, Orbital […] More

Globecomm has expanded the coverage of its Ku-band very small aperture terminal network services to shipping vessels traversing the South Indian Ocean. The company said Thursday the South Indian Ocean serves as a shipping route between Australia and the southern end of Africa. Globecomm’s Ku-band VSAT network currently provides broadband communications services to vessel operators […] More

Four Harris-built maritime vessel tracking receivers have begun to track nearly 250,000 ships around the world as part of hosted payloads onboard Iridium‘s NEXT satellites that were launched in January. Harris said Monday the receivers are designed to offer global automatic identification system information and ship tracking capacity for government and commercial users. Iridium’s NEXT satellite constellation is scheduled to reach full […] More

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell has said the company plans a two- to three-week interval for its Falcon 9 rocket launches once a new launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida enters service next week, Reuters reported Tuesday. Shotwell told Reuters Monday in an interview that launch pad repairs at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station […] More

A Frost & Sullivan report, released by Research and Markets, forecasts the U.S. government and military satellite market will reach an average of $53.78 million in value at a compound annual growth rate of 3.6 percent over the next five years. Research and Markets said Friday the U.S. government accounted for approximately $1.34 billion of the overall global spending on commercial satellite […] More

Space Exploration Technologies has delayed a Falcon 9 rocket launch previously  slated to take off Monday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California due to high winds and rain at the site, CNN reported Sunday. Jill Disis and Danielle Wiener-Bronner write that SpaceX now expects to launch its rocket with an initial set of 10 NEXT satellites for Iridium on Jan. […] More

Physical Optics Corp. has been awarded a five-year, $24.5 million contract to complete the development and procurement of micro weather sensors and advanced micro weather sensors for the U.S. Air Force. POC will manufacture the sensors in Torrance, California, through Nov. 9, 2021 under the follow-on contract to a previous Small Business Innovation Research Requirement award, […] More

SpaceX noted that it has discovered a way to replicate the conditions of the helium tank when a Falcon 9 rocket exploded Sept. 1 as part of ongoing work to determine the root cause of the incident, Space News reported Friday. Jeff Foust writes SpaceX looks to focus its investigation efforts on tanks made from fiber composite […] More

Satellite operators have sent opinions to the Federal Communications Commission after an agency ruling that aims to make frequencies above 24 gigahertz available for fifth-generation wireless services, Space News reported Friday. Peter de Selding writes Boeing, EchoStar, Hughes Network Systems, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Iridium, O3b Networks, OneWeb, SES, SpaceX and ViaSat are among the companies that have submitted their opinions to […] More

Tresys Technology has named federal sales professional Jackson Kemper III as senior vice president of business development and sales. Kemper will lead a team of sales directors to drive commercial and federal sales activity, Tresys said Thursday. “Jackson’s sales knowledge and network of government customer relationships will be a great asset to our customers as well as to our organization,” said Tresys CEO […] More