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Sat-na Monday April, 28 1997
Sat-na
April, 28
1997
Atlas Rocket Successfully Launches Weather Satellite
BT Will Use PanAmSat
ICO/INDOSAT Contract Signing
Indonesia Selects Ariane Again
Orbital Successfully Launches Spain's MINISAT Satellite
COMSAT Files for Non-Dominant Status With FCC
CMT Network Canada
CanWest To Lead The Launch Of TV3 Ireland
Skycom Datenfunk
SES shareholders approve 1996 accounts
Digital Video Broadcasting Project
Integral Systems To Provide Shinawatra
Groupe AB Reports Fire at AB Sat Facility
COM DEV announcement
Upcoming Launches
In Brief
Atlas Rocket Successfully Launches Weather Satellite
A Lockheed Martin Atlas I rocket, designated AC-79,
successfully launched the Geostationary Operational
Environmental Satellite K - GOES K - into geosynchronous
transfer orbit from Complex 36B at Cape Canaveral Air
Station (CCAS), Fla. It was the 30th consecutive successful
Atlas launch from CCAS, the third launch of 1997 and the
last launch of the Atlas I configuration.
The Atlas I had its first flight in July 1990. That
flight was an important evolutionary step in the transition
from the basic NASA Atlas/Centaur vehicle that first
launched successfully in 1963 to Lockheed Martin's full
family of launch vehicles presently serving the commercial,
government civil and military launch industry. Future NASA
missions are manifested to fly on Atlas IIA or IIAS,
starting with the launch next year of EOS AM-1 on an Atlas
IIAS from the new launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base on
the West Coast. As Atlas I leaves the inventory, the newest
Atlas vehicle, the Atlas IIAR, is transitioning from
development to production and first launch late next year.
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite
(GOES) was built by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) of Palo Alto,
Calif. The satellite will be designated as GOES-10 after it
achieves synchronous orbit.
GOES-10 is the third of five advanced weather
satellites being built by Space Systems/Loral for the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to
improve tracking of hurricanes and severe storms.
The first two Loral-built advanced weather satellites,
GOES-8 and GOES-9, operate in geostationary orbit over the
East Coast (75 degrees W.), and over the West Coast (135
degrees W.), respectively. GOES-10 will be stored on orbit
at 105 degrees West longitude and placed into operation when
needed as a replacement for GOES-8 or GOES-9.
The advanced GOES-I through M satellite series has
ushered in a new era in U.S. weather forecasting. The
satellites, the first three-axis, body-stabilised,
meteorological spacecraft to be used by NOAA, provide
simultaneous and continuous, independent imaging and
sounding. Earlier GOES satellites were stabilised by
spinning and viewed the Earth only five percent of the time.
The final two Loral-built advanced weather satellites
in the GOES series, GOES-L and GOES-M, will be launched as
required to support NOAA's dual-satellite geostationary
observing system.
BT Will Use PanAmSat
PanAmSat reported that BT Broadcast Services plans to
use more than 5,000 hours of capacity on PanAmSat's global
satellite system on an as-needed basis through 1999. BT
Broadcast Services will take advantage of a flexible
contract designed exclusively for the group, ensuring
satellite capacity, when available, for a variety of global
broadcast services applications, including part-time and
special events transmissions.
ICO/INDOSAT Contract Signing
ICO Global Communications has signed a contract with
INDOSAT to operate one of its twelve global Satellite
Access Nodes. The multi-year contract with INDOSAT is
valued at approximately USD 20 million.
Under the long term agreement reached between the two
companies, ICO will establish a Satellite Access Node (SAN)
in Indonesia, and INDOSAT will provide ICO with a site
adjacent to its existing international earth station
facilities at Banyu Urip, 64 km north west of Surabaya, in
eastern Java.
Work on the construction of the Banyu Urip SAN site
will start later this year. INDOSAT will be responsible for
site operation and interconnection with public fixed and
mobile networks in Indonesia.
Indonesia Selects Ariane Again
At a ceremony attended by the Indonesian Minister of
Tourism, Posts and Telecommunications, Joop Ave, the
contract signing for the launch of the TELKOM 1
telecommunications satellite was celebrated. During this
ceremony, an agreement on rocket technology training was
signed by P.T. Telekomunikasi Indonesia President Director
A.A. Nasution and Arianespace Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer Charles Bigot.
Built by Lockheed Martin Telecommunications of
Sunnyvale, California, TELKOM 1 will weigh nearly 2,500 kg
(5,500 lb) at lift-off. It is equipped with 32 C-band
transponders. This new satellite will enable P.T.
Telekomunikasi Indonesia to offer voice and data
telecommunications services for more than 15 years.
Orbital Successfully Launches Spain's MINISAT Satellite
Orbital Sciences Corporation's Pegasus XL rocket
successfully delivered Spain's MINISAT satellite into a near-
perfect low-Earth orbit.
After an approximate 10 minute and 45 second flight,
Pegasus deployed MINISAT into an orbit of approximately 570
by 577 kilometres, inclined at 151 degrees to the equator.
Pegasus also carried a small payload from Celestis, Inc.,
which was also placed into its planned orbit.
MINISAT is a 195 kilogram, Spanish-built satellite
designed to perform several scientific missions, including
the study of background radiation in the extreme ultraviolet
range, the behaviour of liquid bridges in microgravity
conditions and the investigation of low-energy gamma
radiation.
COMSAT Files for Non-Dominant Status With FCC
COMSAT Corporation has petitioned the FCC to relieve it
from outdated regulatory burdens and allow it to compete on
an equal footing with other international telecommunications
carriers and satellite companies.
COMSAT is the only U.S. international communications
carrier that is still regulated by the FCC as a dominant
carrier and required to conduct business under a public
utility-style, rate-base, rate-of-return scheme.
The petition requests that COMSAT be allowed to change
its rates and introduce new services over the INTELSAT
satellite system on one-day notice. It also requests that
limits on the company's rate-of-return and certain
structural separation requirements be removed. The company
also is seeking to be reclassified immediately as a non-
dominant carrier in providing its services.
COMSAT's market shares on voice and data traffic have
dropped from 70% in 1988 to 20% in 1996, and in the past
three years, the company's share of video traffic has fallen
from 80% to about 40%.
CMT Network Canada
CMT (Country Music Television) will soon be the first
licensed Canadian specialty television service ever to be
headquartered in Calgary, considered one of the fastest-
growing markets for country music in Canada.
CMT's new facilities will be located in SHAW Court, and
mesh with SHAW's market-leading Alberta country radio
stations: Country 105 Calgary, CISN-FM Edmonton, and CKGY-
AM Red Deer. The CMT sales and marketing team however will
continue to be based in Toronto.
CanWest To Lead The Launch Of TV3 Ireland
CanWest Global Communications Corp. has entered into an
agreement with the Irish consortium holding the exclusive
right to become the Republic of Ireland's first private
sector national television broadcaster.
CanWest will be the largest shareholder in a new
company to be established which will own and operate a
national free-to-air television service to be known as TV3.
TV3, to be headquartered in Dublin, is expected to
launch in 1998. The capital expenditure required to develop
the new operation is expected to be approximately IR (Pound)
15 million (CDN $32 million), which will be funded from
internal resources of the TV3 shareholders.
CanWest's agreement is conditional upon several
outstanding matters, including the successful negotiation of
a broadcast contract with the IRTC, the Irish broadcasting
regulator. Discussions with the IRTC have been progressing
over the past month and are expected to be successfully
completed in the next several weeks.
Skycom Datenfunk
Skycom Datenfunk S.A. located in Betzdorf, Luxemburg,
opposite to the uplink and ground control centre of the
ASTRA satellite operator Societe Europeenne des Satellites,
recently launched its new broadcast services DISCOS
MultyCast, DISCOS NetSat and TechniData SatText.
This new data broadcast platform is based on the
digital audio subcarrier technology of the ASTRA satellite
system. Skycom Datenfunk S.A. is currently using transponder
10.964 Ghz/6,84 MHz on ASTRA satellite 1C.
The DISCOS MultyCast service has especially been
designed for closed user groups and helps saving enormous
parts of the permanently occurring communication costs. The
system itself allows a high flexibility and can be adapted
to the special needs of every company.
DISCOS MultyCast is a typical point-to-multypoint
transmission system and offers biggest advantages in
connection with the distribution of small.' middle or big
data quantities to an almost unlimited number of recipients.
Typical contents for a regular transmission via DISCOS
MultyCast are press releases, price lists, catalogues,
photos and graphics, software updates etc.
Presently the DISCOS MultyCast system can manage more
than 60.000 different closed user groups. In accordance with
the requirements of the user real- time-, just-in-time- and
store-and-forward-transmissions can be applied depending on
the importance and the urgency of the concerned data.
The transmission capacity of the system allows the
broadcast of presently up to 80 MB per hour. Besides lowest
transmission costs the prices for the reception equipment
are extremely low as the reception system itself is based on
a common satellite receiving equipment.
In addition to the DISCOS MultyCast system Skycom
Datenfunk S.A. offers the TechniData SatText for the
transmission of small data quantity. Due to the small
bandwidths of 300 Bits/sec. this system is an optimal
solution for the transmission of text-based-ticker-
information.
SES shareholders approve 1996 accounts
The shareholders of Societe Europeenne des Satellites
(SES) at their Annual General Meeting approved the 1996
accounts. Reflecting a strong demand for transponder
capacity by its customers, SES sales revenues reached LF
14,062m in 1996, an increase of 37% over the previous year.
This substantial growth is due to the additional revenues
realised from the commencement of operations of ASTRA 1E and
1F during the year.
Total expenditures increased by 29%, mostly as a result
of increases in depreciation, satellite insurance and
interest charges. Taxes and franchise fees amounted to LF
2,065m, making the company one of the important contributors
to the Luxembourg state's revenues.
The solid growth in revenues has allowed the company to
improve its financial performance. For the year 1996,
profits reached LF 4,796m compared to LF 2,878m in the
previous year and LF 3,991m in 1994.
This performance enables the company to carry out
investments for additional satellites and ground equipment,
amounting to LF 13,297m in 1996.
Digital Video Broadcasting Project
At a recent meeting of the steering Board of the world-
wide Digital Video Broadcasting Project, DVB announced they
will incorporate High Definition Television as a future
application of digital video broadcasting. This summer a DVB
specification will be available which describes how to use
DVB standards to broadcast HDTV services in "50-Hz"
countries as well as in "60-Hz" countries.
Until now the DVB Project has focused on Standard
Definition (SDTV ) to Enhanced Definition (EDTV) image
quality levels, in response to the existing commercial
priorities identified by its members. Now, the DVB
Project's decision is to widen the range of recommended
image-quality levels to include HDTV.
The `Main Profile at High Level' (MPHL) option of the
MPEG-2 compression toolbox has been selected for this
purpose. Thus, a range of HDTV picture formats may be
selected by the broadcaster, including those now finding
favour in the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
and Digital Audio-Visual Council (DAVIC).
In response to rising demand from many parts of the
world where DVB is being broadcast today, DVB- HDTV was
defined for both 50- and 60-Hz countries. This will enable
broadcasters to use the DVB standards to broadcast HDTV
images and sound, in any country.
Integral Systems To Provide Shinawatra
Integral Systems Inc has signed a contract with
Shinawatra Satellite Public Co Ltd in Thailand to provide a
backup satellite control facility for the Thaicom 2 and 3
satellites. The system features a control centre based on
Integral's EPOCH 2000 product line for satellite command and
control and in the future the system will be able to be
upgraded to support the other satellites in the Thaicom
fleet. Once the system has been installed it will provide
all monitoring and control functions for the satellites and
the ground equipment.
Groupe AB Reports Fire at AB Sat Facility
Groupe AB Sat premises were partially damaged by a fire
which broke out this week Transmission from the AB Sat
digital DTH service was temporarily halted.
AB Sat's digital transmission equipment and tape
storage facility were undamaged by the fire, although the
satellite uplink facility sustained minor damage and will
have to be repaired.
All personnel were safely evacuated from the building.
Four employees were hospitalised for smoke inhalation and
have since been released.
COM DEV announcement
COM DEV International Ltd.'s has signed two
contracts worth a total of $5.5 million with Matra Marconi
Space UK Ltd. (MMS). Under the contracts COM DEV will
provide input and output switch assemblies, multiplexers and
ancillary equipment for the INTELSAT K-TV satellite and the
ASTRA 2B satellite.
MMS was contracted by INTELSAT of Washington, D.C., to
build the INTELSAT K-TV satellite, a high-powered, Ku-band
spacecraft which will be stationed for use in the Asia-
Pacific region. MMS is building the ASTRA 2B digital
broadcast satellite for the Societe Europeene des Satellites
(SES).
The INTELSAT K-TV satellite is designed to meet the
growing demand for direct-to-home video and multimedia
applications and is capable of carrying up to 210 channels
via digital compression. The spacecraft is to be delivered
in late 1998.
The typical commercial communications satellite
contains 150-200 microwave switches, which are critical to
the performance of a satellite. They provide low-loss
routing of communications traffic and redirect signals to a
backup system if the primary system fails. The satellite's
input multiplexers takes the received broadband signal from
the ground and separates it for enhancement and eventual
return to ground stations.
Upcoming Launches
Next Delta Launch Next Ariane Launch
THOR 2A -- May 9, 1997 PAS-6 --May 13, 1997
In Brief
" TCI Satellite Entertainment, one of the partners in
PRIMESTAR, announced that it received more than 34,000 calls
last weekend from customers inquiring about the "Big
Switch", with over 40 percent upgrading to new packages or
adding new services.
" The launch of a US communications satellite Faisat-2V,
which was originally planned to be launched on a Russian
booster rocket on April 17, has been postponed for three
months.
" Rantec Microwave & Electronics Inc. will provide relay
antennas for the Iridium system.
" Primestar announced that its planned service expansion
successfully occurred upgrading Primestar's 1.8 million
customers from 95 channels to 150.
" Bloomberg Television officially launched an Italian
version of its satellite news channel. The channel, which
began broadcasting in January and will increase to 24-hour
coverage next month, was developed in collaboration with
leading Italian wire service Ansa, and is distributed as
part of the digital bouquet of national pay cable operator
Telepiu.
" Knowledge TV, formally MEU, will be carried by the
French digital satellite television service TPS beginning
next month.
" DIRECTV, Inc. has named Larry Hunter senior vice
president, Business Affairs and General Counsel, for its
DIRECTV satellite television entertainment service. Hunter,
who was senior vice president and general counsel at DIRECTV
International Inc., will have responsibility for legal
affairs for DIRECTV and reports to President Eddy
Hartenstein. Hunter succeeds Steve Cox, who has transferred
to the recently formed Strategic Initiatives organisation of
DIRECTV.
Sat-na is sponsored by TELE-satelit International
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(c) Sat-na 1997
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