[Prev][Next][Index]
Sat-na Monday May 12th 1997
Sat-na
May, 12
1997
Death-Star = Death-Sky
First Five IRIDIUM Satellites Successfully Launched
Delta II Launch of Thor II delayed
GlobeCast adds four new occasional-use transponders
Vyvx Installs Major Upgrades at Four Teleports
Taiwan broadcaster selects PanAmSat
British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC results
INTELSAT inaugurates new Ku-band service
AT&T Tridom continues VSAT network expansion
Philips Wins MCPC Digital Satellite Video Contract in
Xinjiang
Sanders manufactures IRIDIUM satellite bus
PowerTel TV, Ontario Hydro team up
Hyundai-TV/COM and Grundig alliance
Ziff-Davis Launches ZDTV
La Chaine Histoire
DIRECTV (GLA) officially in Panama
SPAR Wins Contract
Death-Star = Death-Sky
The latest in the ASkyB-Echostar merger this week saw
Echostar filing a lawsuit in a Colorado federal court
against News Corp. for $200 million it badly needs and
claims News Corp. promised under the terms of the satellite
deal. News Corp. reaction was it "believes there is no
merit" in the claim.
First Five IRIDIUM Satellites Successfully Launched
The first five of 66 IRIDIUM satellites were
successfully launched on a McDonnell Douglas Delta II rocket
from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, USA. The
launch marks an important step toward Iridium LLC's goal of
providing global wireless voice, paging, facsimile and data
services world-wide by late 1998.
The Delta II lifted off the launch pad at 7:55 a.m.
Pacific Daylight Time placing the five IRIDIUM satellites
into transfer orbit. All five satellites were deployed
beginning 63 minutes after lift-off. The five satellites
will undergo in-orbit bus testing on the way to their final
target orbit (421.5nm) where the communications payloads
will be tested. The five satellites will be located in a
slightly inclined (86.4 degrees) orbital plane and will form
part of the first orbital plane of the IRIDIUM
constellation. Subsequent IRIDIUM satellites will be
deployed in six circular polar orbits, with 11 operational
satellites per plane.
This first launch represents the first step in building
the IRIDIUM constellation. These first five satellites are
functional and will be a part of the full 66-satellite
network. After this initial launch, these first satellites
will be used to test satellite command and control
capabilities and basic hardware and software functionality.
Delta II Launch of Thor II delayed
The Delta II launch on May 11 of Thor II for Telenor
Satellite Services of Norway has been rescheduled for May
18.
The postponement will allow time for the launch team to
review flight data from the IRIDIUM launch that occurred on
May 5. During the IRIDIUM mission, after the satellites had
reached their planned deployment orbit, the second stage
attitude control system had higher than planned gas
consumption. The system uses nitrogen gas to orient the
second stage during the orbital coast periods. The mission
outcome was not affected, and all satellites were
successfully deployed.
The team will be prepared for a May 17 date if Space
Shuttle Atlantis STS 84 launches on May 15 and the 17th
becomes available.
GlobeCast adds four new occasional-use transponders
Globecast North America announced the addition of one
GE 1 and three GE 2 C-band transponders to its occasional-
use inventory. These four transponders, together with
existing Galaxy 4 and Galaxy 6 transponders for broadcast
services, create the largest U.S. domestic occasional-use
inventory available.
GlobeCast North America, formerly Keystone
Communications Corp., with headquarters in Culver City, is
the largest U.S.-based provider of transmission services for
video, audio and broadcast data applications.
Vyvx Installs Major Upgrades at Four Teleports
Vyvx, Inc. announced major upgrades at its four
teleports, including a 16-meter standard A antenna in the
Los Angeles area. These improvements will allow for a
greater range of uplinking solutions, additional fibre paths
and redundancy for better service.
Vyvx Upsouth Teleport in Atlanta has installed one 8.1-
meter Ku-band dish to serve international customers in the
Atlantic region. International C-band antennas are under
construction, and expected to be operational in July.
Another 9.2-meter C-band dish has been added for domestic
service. Upsouth is planning a new transmission facility
that will double its present capacity. Switching into and
out of the facility has already improved with a new 128-by-
128 routing switcher. Connectivity with the Vyvx fibre
network will increase substantially this summer with
construction of an OC-48 digital link.
Vyvx's Denver Teleport in Colorado has expanded its
occasional use C-band capabilities with another occasional
use C-band transmit system. The Denver Teleport also offers
full business television services, transmitting from any
location in Denver via microwave back to the teleport for
transmission over satellite or the Vyvx fibre network.
Denver Teleport is strategically located to cross from the
Atlantic to the Pacific ocean region satellites in a single
hop, which translates into more direct service for its
international customers.
Vyvx Steele Valley Teleport in Los Angeles has
installed new 9-meter C-band and 8-meter Ku-band moveable
antennas for occasional use. A new 16-meter standard
antenna is being installed and will be fully operational in
July. The teleport has also installed a new 128-by-128
router directly connected to the Vyvx fibre network. As
with the Upsouth teleport, the new router provides
additional connectivity for customers locally and directly
into the Vyvx fibre network via OC-48 digital fibre and 3
C/Ku-band receive- only antennas.
Vyvx National Gateway Teleport in New York has
installed one 8.1-meter antenna fixed on the Orion 1
satellite offering full digital and analogue Ku-band
service. The teleport is also installing an additional 8.1-
meter Ku-band antenna for digital and analogue occasional
and full time use, to provide additional uplinking options
onto the INTELSAT-K satellite.
Taiwan broadcaster selects PanAmSat
PanAmSat reports that it is providing satellite
capacity to Taiwan's newest television operator. Formosa TV
will utilise capacity on PanAmSat's PAS-2 Pacific Ocean
Region satellite to launch two free-to-air channels for
viewing by cable and non-cable households across Taiwan.
The broadcaster received Taiwan's last available terrestrial
VHF license from authorities in February.
Formosa TV will use 27 MHz on PAS-2's Ku-band China
beam for distribution of its two new channels. The first
channel, primarily devoted to news, has already begun
broadcasting. The second channel is scheduled to begin
broadcasting general-interest programming in June. Formosa
TV, which operates five studios, seven post-production
facilities and two satellite news gathering (SNG) trucks,
will also use PAS-2 for SNG applications throughout Taiwan.
British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC results
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc announced its results for
the nine months ended March 31,1997.
" Profit before tax up 21% to 215 million pounds (US$353
million)
" Revenues up 24% to 913 million pounds (US$1.5 billion)
- Operating profit up 17% to 260 million pounds (US$425
million)
" Earnings per share up 23% to 11.9p (19.5 cents);
earnings per ADR 117 cents
Total paying subscribers up 121,000 in the quarter
to 6.2 million.
INTELSAT inaugurates new Ku-band service
INTELSAT reported the inauguration of fully steerable
Ku-band monitoring capability from its monitoring site in
Bosque Alegre, Argentina. This upgraded capability will
enable INTELSAT to improve its service quality and
reliability in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and
Uruguay, which constitute the Mercosur region.
The Bosque Alegre site is part of INTELSAT's existing
monitoring network, which consists of more than 40 antennas
at 13 locations around the globe. The enhanced monitoring
capability will be used in conjunction with INTELSAT's
Communications System Monitoring (CSM) and Remote Spectrum
Analyser Network (RSAN) systems to monitor Ku-band satellite
and customer traffic performance in the southern hemisphere
of the Atlantic Ocean Region.
"This enhancement at Bosque Alegre will enable us to
easily and better monitor Ku-band service quality on the
INTELSAT 706 and 709 satellites," said Michael Wheeler,
INTELSAT's Communication Operations Manager. "This
monitoring capability will help further enhance our service
in the southern part of Latin America, where most of our
customers in the region are located, he added."
The 706 and 709 satellites are located at 3070E and 310
deg E, respectively, and provide C- and Ku-band services
primarily to the Mercosur countries. The Ku-band beam on the
INTELSAT 706 satellite (which was procured in 1990) was
specifically designed to cover the complete territory of
Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, and currently
carries private network and video services for three of
these countries. The enhanced system will also monitor the
Ku-band Spot 2 beam on the INTELSAT 709 satellite which
serves Brazil.
AT&T Tridom continues VSAT network expansion
AT&T Tridom announced three major contract wins worth
an estimated $12 million that will bolster Japan's disaster
recovery plan and China's communications infrastructure. The
projects, each involving installations of VSAT systems and
hubs, will expand the satellite communications provider's
global reach in the Asia-Pacific region.
AT&T Tridom has installed two Clearlink VSAT (very
small aperture terminal) hub networks for NTT DATA
Corporation in Tokyo and Osaka, as part of Japan's national
disaster and recovery program in response to the 1994 Kobe
earthquake.
NTT DATA will install AT&T Tridom Clearlink 400 VSAT
terminals at NTT DATA locations throughout Japan, using
small-dish technology to make vital communications possible
during major network outages. In addition, more than 30
mobile, emergency VSATs have been specially designed to fit
into customised backpacks, since they may have to be
delivered via motorised bicycle.
In China, the Shanghai Post and Telecommunication
Administration (SPTA);Shangsat, the Shanghai Satellite
Communication Corporation; and SFTC, the Shanghai Foreign
Trade Corporation, have signed a contract with AT&T Tridom.
AT&T Tridom will install a Clearlink Hub System in
Shanghai, China's communications hub that has a strong fibre-
optic and telecommunications network infrastructure. The
VSAT system, to be operated by Shangsat, will offer a range
of data communications services for national and
multinational organisations using the Ku-band frequency,
which became available recently with the launch of Intelsat
802.
Philips Wins MCPC Digital Satellite Video Contract in
Xinjiang
Philips Digital Videocommunication System (DVS), a
business unit of Philips Business Electronics B.V. and the
Provincial Broadcasting Bureau of Xinjiang Autonomous Region
(North-West China) have reached an agreement for the supply
of a digital compression system and 500 head-end IRDs. The
system will be used to distribute 5 TV channels and 3 radio
channels throughout the vast Xinjiang Region via Apstar 1a,
which now carries a single analogue Xinjiang program.
The DVB compliant compression system, to be located in
Urumqi, uses 5 over 2 redundancy and will be connected via
optical fibre with the Xinjiang satellite earth station. The
existing analogue microwave connection will act as a back-up
link, carrying the QPSK modulated MPEG-2 signal. The system
will also contain the advanced CryptoWorks Conditional
Access system.
The 500 Philips head-end IRDs, also supplied with the
system, will be able to receive the Xinjiang channels using
a secure Smart Card. This will allow Xinjiang to control
access to their programs and ensure optimum quality of the
reception, but it will also enable them to introduce many
additional services in the near future.
System installation will start in June 1997, together with
the roll-out of the IRDs, enabling Xinjiang to be fully
operational by July 1, 1997.
Sanders manufactures IRIDIUM satellite bus
Each bus for the 66-satellite constellation is being
built by Sanders, a Lockheed Martin company in Nashua, N.H.,
under contract to Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space (LMMS),
Sunnyvale, Calif. LMMS is responsible to Motorola Satellite
Communications Group, the IRIDIUM prime contractor, for the
spacecraft bus as well as other related products and
services.
At Sanders' Nashua, N.H., manufacturing facility,
technicians receive the bare structure from Dow United
Technologies, Tallasee, Ala., and position it on a mobile,
rotatable dolly. The unit is rolled through eight separate
manufacturing stations during the 10-day assembly period.
At each station the structure is built out with harnesses,
electronic components which comprise the attitude control
system and the satellite's propulsion system.
Once complete, the bus assembly is tested and shipped
to Motorola Satellite Communications Group's Chandler,
Ariz., facility, where the satellite construction is
finished with the addition of the communications payload,
solar panels and main mission antennas. The satellite is
then shipped from Chandler to the launch site.
Sanders is building a total of 80 satellite buses under
a May 1994 contract. The company's 20,000 square feet of
special cleanliness manufacturing space for IRIDIUM bus
assembly includes a Class 10,000 "clean room" for the
assembly of the propulsion system. Sanders manufactures the
propulsion unit as well as the harnesses for the bus.
Production of the buses is scheduled to continue through
December 1997.
PowerTel TV, Ontario Hydro team up
PowerTel TV in addition to planning its roll-out
across southern Ontario, the wireless digital television
company is looking beyond the current CRTC licensing process
and investigating opportunities to offer the benefits of
digital television and Internet services to all parts of the
province.
PowerTel TV has signed a letter of intent with Ontario
Hydro to develop a plan that would enable the company to
purchase various services, including the use of certain
tower sites and fibreoptic transmission facilities
throughout the province. This purchase would enhance the
service that PowerTel TV plans to offer Ontario consumers.
Hyundai-TV/COM and Grundig alliance
BSkyB has awarded a contract to a Grundig and Hyundai-
TV/COM alliance for the supply of digital Set Top Boxes
(STB) for reception of BSkyB digital satellite television
services in Europe.
Hyundai-TV/COM and Grundig have decided to form a strategic
alliance in digital STB design, manufacture, marketing and
sales to derive maximum benefit from the opportunities
created by BSkyB's introduction of digital satellite
broadcasting into the United Kingdom. The Grundig branded
STB's will be manufactured in the company's dedicated
satellite factory in Wales, based upon a Hyundai design.
Ziff-Davis Launches ZDTV
Ziff-Davis Inc. announced the launch of ZDTV: Your
Computer Channel. The 24-hour television network will be
dedicated exclusively to providing information and
entertainment about computers and the Internet.
ZDTV: Your Computer Channel, fully funded by Ziff-
Davis, will debut in the first quarter of 1998. The
television network will incorporate a completely integrated
Web site which will enable viewers to interact with the
channels television hosts, guests, and other viewers in real
time. The Web site companion to the television programming
will debut in the fourth quarter of 1997, as programming
content is being built for the 1998 debut of the television
channel. A sister unit, ZD Television Productions, will
continue to co-produce programming for other channels,
including The Site, television's only one-hour nightly prime-
time show on computing, which airs on the cable network
MSNBC.
La Chaine Histoire
Groupe AB and A&E Television Networks, the owner of The
History Channel, have signed an agreement to launch a new
thematic channel to be called La Chaine Histoire.
Groupe AB's digital DTH service, AB Sat, will begin
broadcasting La Chaine Histoire this week with Nuremberg a
Nuremberg by Fridiric Rossif in commemoration of the
armistice of May 8, 1945. The channel, which will be edited
and operated by AB Sat, will offer French viewers a
combination of French and international thematic history
programming from The History Channel International's
program catalogue, which includes A&E's Biography series,
and from Groupe AB's library. The new channel brings the
number of thematic channels in the AB Sat package to
nineteen.
In addition to France, La Chaine Histoire will also be
marketed in the French-speaking territories of Belgium,
Monaco, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Andorra.
The new channel, which is owned 100% by Groupe AB, will
license the La Chaine Histoire brand-name from A&E. It is
anticipated that A&E will take an equity stake in the
channel in the future.
DIRECTV (GLA) officially in Panama
Available in Panama since December 1996, DIRECTV (GLA)
was officially unveiled at an event held this week in Panama
City.
In Panama, DIRECTV is distributed by Astrovision, GLA's
local operating company. Astrovision was formed in 1995 as
an independent corporation by a group of local investors.
With the launch later this year of Galaxy VIII-I,
DIRECTV (GLA) will provide up to 238 channels of digital
video and audio programming.
SPAR Wins Contract
Spar Aerospace Limited has won a $9.5 million contract
to supply Russia's INFORMCOSMOS with four high power Ku-Band
repeater panels for the GALS-R16 satellite.
Under the terms of this contract, Spar Space Systems
will design and build the amplification module of the GALS-R
16 repeater, which will rely on Spar's expertise in high
power payload systems and the use of heritage equipment.
Spar will also cooperate with lNFORMCOSMOS for the
integration of the repeater.
Due for launch at the end of 1998, GALS-R 16 is a
new generation of Russian built satellite that will provide
telecommunications services over Russia and the former
Soviet Union.
Joint Stock Company INFORMCOSMOS is a leading Russian
designer and manufacturer of satellite communications
systems. It currently is developing a new generation of
fixed communications and Direct Broadcast by Satellite
satellites (EXPRESS and GALS-R 16) to replace the existing
GORIZONT satellites as well as a mobile satellite system
(MARAFON) to provide reliable communications with mobile
vehicles and remote terminals.
Upcoming Launches
Next Delta Launch Next Ariane Launch
THOR 2A -- May 17, 1997 INSAT 2D/INMARSAT 3F4 --June
3, 1997
In Brief
The next Chinese satellite, Dongfanghong-3, is due to
be launched on May 13 on a Long March 3a rocket. The launch
was originally scheduled to launch on May 5, however, it was
delayed in part to ensure a successful launch after a number
of failures last year.
Tee-Comm Electronics Inc.'s shares dropped 52% this
week after the company reported that it won't be able to
meet an interest payment now due. Tee-Comm has a further 15
days before it will be considered in default. The company
is considering proposing that its convertible subordinated
debenture holders exchange some of their convertible
debentures for equity, as a way of injecting the firm will
additional funds.
Sat-na is sponsored by TELE-satelit International
http://www.tele-satellit.com
and produced by Satellite Journal International
http://members.aol.com/satjournal
(c) Sat-na 1997
[Other mailing lists]