So, it would be safe to assume that an organization entering a pandemic soon after achieving FOC would experience at least some hurdles and hiccups. But the picture that Lieutenant General JT Thompson, Commander of Space Force’s SMC, paints reveals quite the opposite.

On May 12, 2021, Thompson sat down with the Mitchell Institute’s Space Power Forum to highlight what SMC accomplished during the pandemic, discuss the growing roles that the commercial space sector and international partnerships are playing in the advancement of SMC’s capabilities, and to give an update on the Space Systems Command‘s (SSC) stand up process.

Thompson opened the forum by providing an impressive rundown of all that SMC achieved during the last year and a half. After giving a special nod to SMC for its high performance throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, he reaffirmed, with pride, SMC’s ability to persevere and advance its mission of providing unparalleled space capabilities to joint warfighters.

Despite the pandemic, SMC performed seven national security space launches, completed the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) constellation, added two more GPS III satellites to the Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) constellation, and awarded the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract on-time and without protest. To Thompson, 2020 was, without a doubt, an extremely successful year for SMC.

SMC made further progress through the expansion of the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC), by adding its 500th member, as well as awarding a new management contract for SpEC, which was comprised of a 10 year, $12 billion deal. SpEC was originally created “to bridge the cultural gap between military buyers and commercial space startups and small businesses through OTAs.” Fostering the growth of SMC’s relationship with the commercial space sector was a consistent theme that Thompson returned to throughout the forum.

The commercial space sector, Thompson believes, will be key in outpacing the advancement of adversarial counterspace systems. He explained, “I think we need to go bigger and bolder on incorporating commercial space capabilities into the service. We also saw…the increased development and testing of counter space systems by our adversaries, China and Russia. To compete in the space domain for the next decade, we really have to continue to refine our programs and our architectures in ways that allow us to both rapidly and efficiently partner with these new space startups.”

Thompson also underscored the commercial sector’s potential in enhancing and advancing Space Force’s space domain awareness, space traffic management, and weather monitoring initiatives.
He emphasized that commercial markets are driving a paradigm shift in speed, access, and relevance in the tactical battle space, but due to current Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) procurement requirements models, SMC doesn’t have as much flexibility as it should to pursue capabilities and technologies that the sector offers.

“It’s not an acquisition problem,” Thompson stated. “It’s a whole of the Department [of Defense] problem to try and access these commercial things on relevant timelines. We have a lot of engagements with industry. They have a ton of sharp folks who love to experiment, and they want to get after new ways to integrate commercial capabilities and capacities into our architecture.”

Thompson noted that similar to the booming potential the commercial sector offers the SMC, international and allied partnerships’ potential is just as booming. He explained that allied partners are playing an increasingly critical role in the U.S.’ “resilience to and deterrence of hostile and unsafe activity in space.”

In November of last year, SMC held the International Space Pitch Day, which resulted in the awarding of contracts to 10 small businesses across the U.K., Australia, U.S., and India. He gave an exciting update that earlier this year, the awardees presented progress in cutting edge areas such as blockchain, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI). He praised the outcomes that sprang from the pitch day event and reported that SMC has received a huge wave of interest from other host countries around the world to participate in International Space Pitch Day in 2022. “It’s a relatively small effort,” said Thompson. “It’s relatively small dollars, but we’re seeing a huge impact from it.”

Another international partnership success story included the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that General John W. Raymond, Chief of Space Operations at the U.S. Space Force, signed with Japan last December. The MOU supports the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) program to host a pair of U.S. payloads on two Japanese satellites.

U.S. Space Force’s collaboration with Space Norway and the Norwegian Ministry of Defense for the Enhanced Polar System – Recapitalization (EPS-R) was another win that Thompson highlighted. The EPS-R partnership enables payload hosting on two Norwegian polar satellites for artic communications purposes.

According to Thompson, the U.S. Space Force is currently discussing and exploring international space acquisition partnerships with Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. Thompson said, “If the global space economy is going to grow as it’s expected…then we’ve got to be able to take advantage of these international partnerships over the next few years, to the mutual advantage of ourselves and our allies.”

Thompson also updated the forum on the stand up process of the Space Systems Command (SSC). In April of this year, U.S. Space Force announced launching SSC to take over technology development and acquisition, which has previously been under SMC’s purview. Thompson reported that SSC is planned be stood up this summer, pending a Commander’s nomination and confirmation.

“By continuing to collaborate with space acquisition organizations and bring them closer into the architectural collaborations that we have, I think that those partnerships will continue to pay huge dividends,” said Thompson.

To hear more from U.S. Space Force’s Lt Gen JT Thompson watch the space power forum on-demand here!

The post Space Force’s SMC took off this past year, despite the pandemic appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

While everything that Debra said is accurate – personnel changes, a misalignment of schedules, and other factors have resulted in less than anticipated use of hosted payloads by the military and government. It could give the false impression that hosted payloads are a thing of the past – something that failed to launch despite immense potential, lots of exposure and intense effort by both commercial operators and the DoD to make it work.

Well, I would like to confidently say, “not so fast.” The benefits that Debra attributes to hosted payloads in her article are too attractive for government users to ignore.

Stretching military budgets further
According to the article, the Air Force Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload (CHIRP) launched on SES-2, “…saved the Air Force nearly $300 million compared with mounting the sensor on its own satellite.” And the Air Force’s Responsive Environmental Assessment Commercially Hosted (REACH) payloads hosted on Iridium NEXT satellites, “…[cost] $230 million less than a dedicated constellation.”

That’s more than $500 million in savings for just two Air Force programs – for those keeping track at home. At a time when the national debt is approaching $25 trillion, and the government is increasing spending to help fight the COVID-19 global pandemic and mitigate its economic impact, more than half of a billion dollars in savings can’t be overlooked or understated.

In fact, planning for the budgetary efficiency provided by hosted payloads may now be necessary.

In late May, House Democrats called for military budget dollars to be redirected to coronavirus relief efforts. While that may not come to pass, it’s indicative of other military spending trends that are emerging worldwide, with COVID-19 expected to slow the incredible growth in defense spending.  The $2 trillion allocated during just the first COVID-19 Stimulus Bill already exceeds the annual defense budget by a factor of three.  In this environment, meeting satellite communications and sensor requirements at a lower price tag is even more important than ever before.

Unfortunately, Debra is spot-on about the challenges that hosted payload programs face. But those, too, could be about to change.

More orbits, more satellites, more options
Personnel and military reorganizational challenges aside, timing has been one of the biggest hurdles facing the successful use of hosted payloads by the military. As Debra details, the commercial sector designs and develops capabilities more rapidly than the military. This has resulted in timing problems when host satellite assembly, integration, and test proceed at one pace but the government payload isn’t quite ready to be delivered for integration.

This will always be one of the big problems facing hosted payload efforts – they require both parties to coordinate schedules and ensure that two very complex and challenging projects are synchronized as much as possible.  This requires early engagement and flexibility between government and industry.

This is probably not going to change. But what is going to change is the commercial satellite industry.

We’re entering an unprecedented and exciting period for the satellite industry. Satellite owner-operators are continuing investments in not only geostationary earth orbit (GEO), but also heavily in Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO), and Lower Earth Orbit (LEO). This increase in satellite construction and launch opens the door to more hosting and launch opportunities for the military and government – and opens the door for the government to launch payloads into multiple orbits.

LL Cool J once famously rapped, “Don’t call it a comeback…I’ve been here for years.” That sentiment applies to hosted payloads. They never went away. While some challenges kept hosted payload programs from being as plentiful as industry experts predicted, the benefits are too great to ignore.

The reduced costs and expedited time to get payloads into orbit will always be important to the military. They may never be as important as right now when military needs are high, but military top-line budgets may see a decrease.

For additional information on the benefits and possibilities of hosted payload programs, click HERE to download the whitepaper, “What is a hosted payload,” from our resource center.

The post Don’t call it a comeback – hosted payloads have been here for years appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

As we review our third year of The Government Satellite Report, these themes resonate through some of our top stories.

To read the top stories from 2017 and see the trends and topics that are shaping the satellite industry today and into the future, fill out the form below.

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NASA GOLD will observe Earth’s space weather in a very important region, where the part of the atmosphere that is ionized by radiation from the sun –  called the ionosphere – is coupled with the unionized atmosphere, which is often referred to as the thermosphere.

<Watch the latest GOLD video courtesy of NASA by clicking here>

While much has been written about the GOLD science mission and its contributions to better understanding how the weather of the Ionosphere impacts radio frequency transmissions and low earth orbiting satellites that use this region, little has been shared about GOLD’s arduous journey from manufacturing to orbit. That’s a shame, since the process of building, mounting and then launching a payload aboard a commercial satellite is an interesting one – and one that we’re going to shed some more light on right now.

GOLD is notable in part because of the organizations working in concert to make the entire program a success. The mission represents the first time universities and a commercial spacecraft operator will team up to enable a NASA science program. GOLD is being developed and operated by a team comprised of NASA, the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), the University of Central Florida, Airbus Defence and Space, and SES. Each of these organizations played a role in taking GOLD from concept to reality.

Payload Integration & Testing

The NASA GOLD hosted payload was completed by LASP in late 2016 and delivered it to the Airbus satellite integration facility in Toulouse, France, in January 2017.  Airbus is SES’ contractor to build and deliver GOLD’s host spacecraft, SES-14. After assembling the main components of SES-14, Airbus integrated GOLD on the Earth-facing deck of the satellite in April.

Throughout the spring, summer and fall, SES-14 and GOLD underwent a series of tests to verify that the satellite met requirements for SES-14’s communications mission and to verify both SES-14 and GOLD met mission compatibility requirements established early in the program.  Both SES-14 and GOLD passed with flying colors.

SES-14 and GOLD underwent final preparations in Toulouse in December and were transported from Toulouse to the Guiana Space Centre near Kourou, French Guiana, aboard a contracted Antonov 124 aircraft on December 22.  SES-14 and GOLD are currently being prepared for a January 25 launch on an Ariane 5 rocket, by SES’ launch service provider for this mission, Arianespace.

Getting into Orbit

The Ariane 5 rocket will place SES-14 and GOLD into a transfer orbit. Over the next few months, Airbus will raise SES-14 to a geostationary orbit before handing off operations to SES. After a few weeks of on-orbit testing and checkout, SES-14 will commence its communications mission at 45.7° West over Brazil, where is will serve video, mobility, and other customers over Europe, the transatlantic region and the Americas.

Once SES-14 is operational, the LASP team will commission GOLD for its science mission, which will begin a few weeks after GOLD commissioning activities commence.

As a geostationary satellite, SES-14 will provide GOLD a vantage point to constantly look at the same region of the Earth. GOLD’s sensor will have a 30 minute cadence – observing the disk and limb of the earth every 30 minutes. It’s the first time that NASA can study the ionosphere and thermosphere from a geostationary orbit. Previous missions have been in low earth orbit, where the cadence to revisit the same region is once per day.

Ready for Transmission

From its orbit, GOLD will transmit its science data using one of SES-14’s communications channels to an SES teleport at Woodbine, MD.  From there, SES will route the data to LASP’s GOLD Science Operations Center for initial processing.

The data delivered by GOLD will be a series of images – one produced every 30 minutes – which can be played as a movie. These images contain spectral information, multiple wavelengths or colors, as well as spatial information. Overall, this data will provide key information about how Earth’s upper atmosphere connects to the dynamic and complex system of space that fills our solar system.

To watch the launch of SES-14 and the GOLD hosted payload, click HERE.  To learn more about the GOLD hosted payload, download this GOLD & ICON infographic to learn about the benefits of hosted payloads or the whitepaper “What is a Hosted Payload?” Be sure to watch the launch live here: www.arianespace.com on January 25, 2018.

The post GOLD’s journey: From a small payload in a lab to operating in outer space appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

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As a follow up, we are taking a closer look at the logistics and program requirements of a hosted payload program in academia. What exactly do academic institutions need to have in place to make a hosted payload program a success and how much time and resources are required?

To gain a firmer grasp on these requirements, GSR sat down with Dr. Richard Eastes, the Principal Investigator for NASA’s GOLD Mission. GOLD (Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk) is an ultraviolet (UV) imaging spectrograph designed to measure densities and temperatures in Earth’s thermosphere and ionosphere and will be launched as a hosted payload onboard SES-14.

<TO LISTEN TO A PODCAST ABOUT THE GOLD PROGRAM, CLICK HERE>

Here’s what Dr. Eastes had to say about getting a successful hosted payload program off the ground:

Government Satellite Report (GSR): What are some of the two or three basic requirements needed to start a successful hosted payload program on a campus?

Dr. Richard Eastes (RE): Funding is essential, as is a goal that is interesting and feasible. To get the funding needed for the GOLD mission of opportunity, my team and I had to explain how allowing us to spend millions of dollars of NASA’s money will help solve a problem or question that is of interest to them and other scientists.

GOLD was selected for funding after:

• Scientists reviewing the proposed science were convinced that the mission was the most scientifically promising mission of opportunity of 12 proposed missions
• A team evaluating the implementation plan, (the technical, cost and management aspects) for the proposed mission were convinced that the mission was likely to result in a successful mission.

Providing that information was possible for GOLD due to the efforts of an enthusiastic team of outstanding scientists and exceptional engineers.

Able leadership of the teams is also crucial, and for a Principal Investigator-led mission like GOLD, that has been my responsibility.

GSR: What would you say are the first steps that administrators or faculty would need to take to put such a program in place? What groups would need to be involved?

Dr. Eastes: Our first step was to identify an opportunity provided by NASA to which we could propose  some ideas for an interesting  science investigation that somewhat matched our expertise.  That enabled some colleagues and myself to then identify other scientists whose expertise and interests would benefit the effort. From there, we could carefully select team members who would be available while accomplishing all the science goals we were proposing, all within the limitations of the funding. Then we had to identify organizations capable of providing what was needed for a successful mission.

For GOLD, the instrument to make the measurements needed and part of the ground system is provided by the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), the University of Central Florida is providing the processing of the data, and SES is providing the hosting. While most hosted science payloads have flown on satellites intended for science missions, such missions at geostationary orbit, the orbits we needed for GOLD, are rare. Therefore, we needed a feasible way of getting the instrument into geostationary orbit, and SES has handled that wonderfully.

GSR: What would be the optimum size for a university hosted payload team? Would it be a comparable size to a professional, business-to-business hosted payload team?

Dr. Eastes: Creation of the proposals for GOLD was supported by the part-time efforts of approximately 12 scientists, a few engineers, and especially a project manager. The development of GOLD instrument was supported by the efforts of approximately 15 scientists and, at the peak of the instrument development, approximately 20 engineers.

A significantly larger science team would have been challenging to support within the budget constraints for the GOLD mission, but the range of expertise needed to address the science goals of the mission could not be adequately covered without the team members participating. GOLD is a cost-capped mission, meaning there have always been funding restrictions.

A business-to-business hosted payload team could be smaller. Most of the GOLD science team members are primarily supported by other sources and devote only limited amounts of time to the mission. Also, since GOLD is motivated by a diverse set of science goals, a more diverse and somewhat larger team is needed.

However, the engineers, who were responsible for the detailed design and fabrication, are all professionals. They moved onto the program as they were needed and moved to other projects when their work was completed.

GSR: Who would the stakeholders involved in a project like this one include?

Dr. Eastes: I’ll use GOLD as my frame of reference for these answers. Stakeholders would include the funder of the mission (e.g. NASA), the instrument builder (e.g. LASP), the science team (e.g. universities, government organizations and one third-party company), and the host mission owner (e.g. SES).

GSR: How long do you think a program like this would take to build out?

Dr. Eastes: If by build out, you mean to build the instrument – it depends on the time needed to design as well as build the instrument. Meeting the goal of the GOLD mission required a new instrument design and defining the interfaces to the spacecraft.

Most of the work on the design, the detailed work necessary for an instrument to be built, began after funding was received. For GOLD, that required approximately three years. During that time, an instrument design was developed and built.

Then comes integration onto the spacecraft and launch, which will be approximately a year for the GOLD mission. Development of the ground systems needed to support the mission during orbit operations, which are currently funded for two years, began with receiving funding, and will continue through the beginning of on orbit operations.

There is a possibility that NASA will fund an extension of the operations beyond the first two years, and we plan to propose for that extension.

To learn more about hosted payloads and their benefits, check out SES Space and Defense’s whitepaper entitled, “What is a Hosted Payload” or watch the Hosted Payloads Video here.

The post What do you need to start a hosted payload program at a university? appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

Benefits of Academic Institutions Pursuing Hosted Payloads
The involvement of academic institutions in a hosted payload program may be unique, but it shouldn’t be particularly surprising. That’s because hosted payloads can deliver multiple significant benefits to any academic institution looking to gather satellite data for use in research and scientific pursuits – especially in such hot research areas as climate science.

Hosted payloads present many of the same advantages for academic institutions that other government agencies using hosted payloads, like the FAA, already experience. The most important of these being the conservation of time, resources and funds. The cost of building a spacecraft and launching it is extremely high. Which is what makes the concept of hosted payloads so appealing for government agencies and academic institutions, alike.

As Todd Gossett, Senior Director of Hosted Payloads at SES Space and Defense explained, “It’s a cheaper way to get into space. And that’s because they [universities] don’t have to procure an entire spacecraft [and]the entire support infrastructure that comes with that, such as the ground commanding infrastructure, antennas, operations center, etc. And they don’t have to procure a launch…really it’s because the unique attributes of a hosted payload program really match up with the funding and the infrastructure of the hosted payload customer.”

Understand the Challenges of Starting a Hosted Payload Program in Academia
That’s not to say there wouldn’t be some sizable challenges to overcome in order to put a hosted payload program in place at an academic institution. Even with the massive cost savings that hosted payloads offer, these projects can still cost millions.

This is the main deterrent that is pushing most academic satellite programs to focus on much smaller satellites like nanosats or cubesats. However, although these satellites offer a valuable learning experience, they simply can’t stay in orbit as long as a hosted payload on a GEO satellite, and they seem to be limited to LEO.

Find a Government Partner with Similar Goals
Of course, government budgets for scientific exploration are far larger than that of an academic institution. So in order to put a hosted payload program into action, the university will likely need to seek out a government sponsor with similar scientific goals.  “Seek out a government sponsor who is interested in the science that they could produce as a result of putting a mission into space,” Gossett explained. “That’s going to make it much easier for [universities] to obtain the requisite funding to put a science mission on board a spacecraft.”

Build Hardware that is Space Certified
Beyond funding, there is also the challenge of building payload hardware that is space certified. This is where partnerships with third-party vendors like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Leidos, Ball Aerospace and some universities like University of Colorado, University of Massachusetts Lowell and University of California Berkeley come into play; they’re capable of building space-qualified hardware that both meet mission requirements and can withstand the harsh environment of space. Satellite vendors such as Boeing, Airbus Defense and Space, and Orbital ATK also provide experienced teams to integrate hosted payloads with the host satellite.

Finally, owner-operators such as SES Space and Defense can operate the host satellite, facilitate operations of the hosted payload, and downlink and disseminate mission data using the company’s existing satellite command and control and ground infrastructures, all invaluable resources to a typically lean academic team.

For universities and other academic institutions to successfully take part in a hosted payloads program, they likely will need to find a government partner with similar scientific goals in mind to sponsor the project, and a third-party vendor to support the hardware and infrastructure needs of that project. Like most academic pursuits, a hosted payload program is a collaborative effort.  However, should an academic institution put in the work and build a team – similar to the one behind the NASA GOLD program – the benefits could be well worth their effort.

To learn more about hosted payloads and their benefits, check out SES Space and Defense’s whitepaper entitled, “What is a Hosted Payload” or watch the Hosted Payloads Video here.

The post Understanding the Realities of Implementing a Hosted Payload Program at a University appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

The WAAS is notable for multiple reasons. The first is its important role in aviation and public safety. Another is the fact that it’s comprised of hosted payloads –WAAS equipment—antennas, receivers, and transmitters—h osted aboard commercial satellites, that are used to broadcast the WAAS signal to users throughout North America.

While the federal government has been slow adopt hosted payloads for widespread usage for plethora government space missions,, the FAA has been a believer and user of hosted payloads for decades – and there’s a very good reason for that. Hosted payloads are a faster, less expensive and easier way to get payloads into space.

Use of a commercially hosted payload means a government organization won’t have to pay the full development and construction cost of the satellite. Further, a hosted payload user  won’t bear the full burden of launch costs. Finally, with approximately 20 commercial launches to geostationary orbit per year and a relatively short timeline to get a payload on orbit – approximately three years from contract to launch—use of commercially hosted payloads can enable a government program to get on orbit faster than use of traditional “free flyer” programs.

These benefits were well illustrated by Al Tadros, the Chair of the Hosted Payload Alliance and VP of Civil and DoD Business for Space Systems Loral (SSL), during the 2016 Hosted Payload and Small Sat Summit, when he listed the benefits of hosted payloads, which included, “Increased access to space, lower launch cost and risk, more resilient architectures resulting from hosting on commercial satellites, operational flexibility of having access on a large number of commercial satellites and payload-focused acquisitions rather than the full-on, purpose built, free-flyer missions that the government regularly uses.”

With the benefits so well established, it’s really no surprise that other federal agencies – besides the FAA – are starting to get the memo about hosted payloads. New hosted payload programs have been executed or announced across both the defense and civilian sectors of the federal government – including the Air Force’s CHIRP Program, and NASA’s GOLD and GeoCarb Programs.

Some of these successful hosted payload programs were the subject of a recent video released by SES Space and Defense. Here is a closer look at some of the programs that SES Space and Defense has run on behalf of the federal government:

To learn more about hosted payloads and how they can give government agencies and the Department of Defense more efficient and expedient access to space, click the following resources:  

• Whitepaper: What is a Hosted Payload?
• Hosted Payloads Infographic
• PODCAST: Nicole Robinson on the benefits of hosted payloads for NOAA and other federal agencies
• PODCAST: CHIRP team discusses program and benefits of hosted payloads

The post New video highlights successful hosted payload programs appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

But WAAS isn’t just notable because of its important role and mission – the program is also notable because it utilizes hosted payloads aboard commercial satellites. The FAA WAAS relies on a number of satellites for sending updated GPS information to end users, and those satellite payloads are frequently launched as hosted payloads on the spacecraft of commercial satellite providers.

The new WAAS payload being launched will be hosted aboard SES-15, a Ku-band satellite that will provide HTS and wide-beam coverage from 129°W and will be managed by global COMSATCOM provider, SES.

The use of hosted payloads by the FAA for the WAAS program is notable because it’s a practice that – quite frankly – isn’t adopted as often and as widely as it should be across the federal government and Department of Defense. Although hosted payloads are capable of giving federal entities access to space in a more efficient and expedient fashion, they simply aren’t utilized frequently or consistently due to perceived risks and concerns about the lack of control over the spacecraft. But despite the reticence seen across the federal government, the FAA has been bullish about hosted payloads – utilizing them to put payloads in space for approximately two decades.

To better understand why the FAA is such a staunch believer in hosted payloads, get more information about WAAS and find out why WAAS payloads are perfect candidates to be hosted aboard commercial spacecraft, we sat down with two government satellite experts from SES Space and Defense – Tim Deaver, Corporate Vice President of Development, and Bryan Benedict, Senior Director of Innovation and Satellite Programs.

During our podcast discussion, Tim and Bryan talked about why it makes business sense for WAAS to be hosted on a COMSATCOM satellite, why the FAA is a leader in hosted payloads, and what other government agencies can learn from the FAA. Here is what they had to say:

[iframe //percolate.blogtalkradio.com/offsiteplayer?hostId=858045&episodeId=9892401]

To learn more about hosted payloads and how they can give government agencies and the Department of Defense more efficient and expedient access to space, click the following resources: 

• Whitepaper: What is a Hosted Payload?
• Hosted Payloads Infographic
• PODCAST: Nicole Robinson on the benefits of hosted payloads for NOAA and other federal agencies
• PODCAST: CHIRP team discusses program and benefits of hosted payloads

The post FAA WAAS leads the way on hosted payloads in the federal government appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

The past couple of years have been an exciting time for the satellite industry. New technologies, increased demand for satellite-enabled solutions and the introduction of revolutionary, innovative players to the industry has the government watching the skies and looking to our commercial satellite industry for solutions.

There are many reasons for this renewed interest and focus on SATCOM. The desire to quickly have advanced capabilities and services everywhere – including on the move and at the tactical edge – has created a renewed need for resilient satellite services that can deliver incredible bandwidth, with lower latency and extremely high throughputs.

Simultaneously, the adoption of next-generation High Throughput Satellites (HTS) and the emergence, and subsequent expansion, of MEO constellations across the satellite industry will ensure that our market is prepared and poised to meet the challenges of a more sophisticated and demanding customer.

These same technologies also make COMSATCOM more accessible and cost effective for the government as it looks to satellite to deliver mission-critical communications across the globe.

The advancement and proliferation of space capabilities continued in 2016, as did the sober realization that traditional US government owned and operated systems may be vulnerable to service denial, disruption or degradation. The space environment is certainly not the benign environment it once was. That has caused our government and military leadership to seriously consider integrating additional commercial capabilities.

For example, by systematically leveraging a commercial satellite architecture and utilizing commercially hosted payloads, the US government could leverage an architecture poised to provide capability across the range of operational needs. As an example, 2016 saw the introduction of multiple exciting hosted payload programs across the government – including NASA’s GOLD program and the FAA’s WAAS program.

Many experts and satellite owner-operators – including SES – are anticipating near-record demand for satellite services across global governments in 2017 and beyond. The US Department of Defense, seeing the need to evaluate it’s future space architecture, launched an innovative Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) to fully examine their options. The commercial satellite industry figures to weigh heavily in that analysis.

Winston Beauchamp, Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force for Space, relayed the following at a round table discussion at the World Policy Institute last year, “Today we build a military satellite constellation, and if we run out of capacity we lease more from the commercial world. But that may not be the best solution in the future. Instead we may want a balance of both commercial and military so that we give incentive from industry to build additional mission assurance and resilience measures into their architecture. By inviting our partners to weigh in in the analysis of alternatives, we can vastly improve our mission assurance.”

The Government Satellite Report remains committed to bringing you the latest satellite news, editorial glimpses into the trends driving commercial satellite adoption, discussions about the latest satellite technologies and insightful interviews with government and satellite industry leaders in 2017. But first, here is a look at some of the articles that our readers found most compelling in 2016. Thank you for being a loyal reader.

Download the Government Satellite Report’s Year in Review for 2016 by clicking HERE.

The post Satellite advancements have government watching the skies – a 2016 year in review appeared first on SES Space and Defense.