Globalstar announced today that a Russian Soyuz rocket has placed four Globalstar replacement satellites into low Earth orbit. The four satellites were manufactured at the same time as the original constellation by prime contractor Space Systems/Loral and kept on Earth as ground spares. Four more identical craft will be sent into space later this summer.
The constellation, spread throughout six orbital planes, originally consisted of 48 operational satellites and several in-orbit spares. After experiencing several hardware failures, Globalstar reduced the fleet to 40 active spacecraft plus orbital reserves.
In February, Globalstar announced a serious problem with the S-band antennas that may end the company’s ability to maintain two-way communications services by next year.
Engineers have observed degradation in the performance of the antennas’ solid-state power amplifiers, adversely affecting the quality of voice and data communications through the Globalstar system, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Globalstar is also racing to begin launching a new generation of satellites by 2009 to minimize the time without the capacity for two-way communications.
Thales Alenia Space will design and build the 48 new craft under a contract worth nearly $900 million announced in December. Launches are slated to begin in 2009, though the schedule could be accelerated, according to Globalstar.
Snubbed by the U.S., China is finding new space partners, explains the NY Times. Not only did China design, build and launch the satellite for Nigeria, but it also provided a huge loan to help pay the bill. China has also signed a satellite contract with another big oil supplier, Venezuela.
China is developing an earth observation satellite system with Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru and Thailand. And it has organized a satellite association in Asia.
In recent years, China has managed to attract customers with its less expensive satellite launching services. Yet it had never demonstrated the technical expertise to compete for international contracts to build satellites.
The Nigeria deal has changed that.
Chinese engineers designed and constructed Nigcomsat-1, a geostationary communications satellite.
A state-owned aerospace company, Great Wall Industry Corporation, will monitor the satellite from a ground station in northwestern China. It will also train Nigerian engineers to operate a tracking station in Abuja, their national capital.
China also launched “SinoSat-3″ on Friday, a DBS comsat, aboard a Long March-3A, the 100th flight of its Long March series.
The PRC learned about large antenna structures from Hughes. Hughes designed a geosynchronous communications satellite for a PRC-controlled consortium, Asia-Pacific Mobile Telecommunications (APMT).
But the very large antenna array raised concerns that the satellite could also be used for SIGINT collection so it was barred by the US government from shipping due to technology transfer concerns.
In its annual report to Congress on Chinese military power, Defense Department analysts highlighted China’s “space and counterspace” capabilities (pdf, top). In a briefing on the report last Friday (May 25), Pentagon officials called China’s space efforts a “robust, multidimensional counterspace program.”
Satellites also are becoming vital to Beijing’s domestic development plans. In the next several years, China could launch as many as 100 satellites to help deliver television to rural areas, create a digital navigational network, facilitate scientific research and improve mapping and weather monitoring.
Research centers on microsatellites have opened in Beijing, Shanghai and Harbin, and a new launching center is under construction in Hainan Province.
In other space news, engineers overcame a potentially crippling computer crash on the U.S. military’s Orbital Express mission earlier this month. A computer problem had stranded the two craft several miles apart and threatened to prematurely end the satellite servicing demonstration.
Orbital Express (above), an innovative program involving two largely autonomous spacecraft, was launched in March to conduct a three-month mission. The project includes ASTRO, a cutting edge servicer built by Boeing Phantom Works, and NextSat, which operates in a dual role as both a fuel depot and a mock client spacecraft.
The Russian Aviation and Space Agency, is the government agency responsible for Russia’s space science program. Russia plans an ambitious space program and will double spacecraft production by 2009. Russian President Vladimir Putin says their new MIRV can overcome any missile defense system the United States may place in Eastern Europe. Given the strategic importance of Russia as the main energy provider to the EU, Moscow has some leverage.
“Global guerillas” may disrupt fuel pipelines and electric grids using EMP or conventional weapons, suggests John Robb in his new book, “Brave New War“. Gigawatt electromagnetic pulse weapons are being developed in Russia and the United States.
The National Security Space Office for Operationally Responsive Space (above) develops programs like TacSat-3, essentially a Global Hawk in space, providing real-time data to ground forces. Companies like Ball Aerospace and Surrey Satellite as well as University Nanosat Programs like Berkeley Space Sciences Lab, Cornell and Utah State have developed a ton of Microsats.
Broadband Reports profiles the more mundane — satellite internet services in the United States. They include HughesNet Satellite Internet service (formerly DirecWay), WildBlue and Starband.
The global “war on terror” is largely outsourced. SAIC spent $1.3B in their congressional lobbying efforts in 2006. The U.S. government reportedly spent 70 percent of its $48 billion classified intelligence budget ($34B), on private contracts last year with little Congressional oversight.
One might wonder whether massive Geosynch satphone platforms like Thuraya and others planned for the U.S., are really dual use platforms — a surrogate for domestic spying.
Satellite and cellular calls generally carry some sort of identification number, which gets matched to a phone number in company databases. If intelligence officials can match the ID number to a person, they can monitor the call — assuming they can break the encryption. Conceivably, ancillary (but secret) electronic packages on board huge geo-sats might also monitor ordinary cellular ID beacons.
MSV’s satellites, under construction by The Boeing Company, will operate in geostationary orbit over North America from 101 degrees and 107.3 degrees west. The satellites feature 22-meter diameter, elliptical mesh reflectors. Negotiations between Ottawa and Washington were apparently complicated by spy agencies who demand the right to tap satphones.
Perhaps the UN should take over GlobalStar. Free Space!
Related DailyWireless stories include; Globalstar in Trouble, TerreStar Gets a Slot, Proxim + Gilat Satellite, Satellite Repeaters: Grounded in Reality?, U of Arizona: Mars or Bust, Routers in Space, Lockheed CEO: Space is Broken, Russian Satellite Zapped?, Dark Week in Space, SkyNet Satellite Hacked?, SpaceX: “Pretty Good” and Chinese Destroy Satellite – Create Space Debris Field.
