Interference www.satellite-evolution.com | March 2020 1 Issue.pmd 1 18/02/2020, 00:05 2 www.satellite-evolution.com | March 2020 Issue.pmd 2 18/02/2020, 00:05 Contents - Volume 1, Issue 1 Editor Amy Saunders [email protected] News & Social Media Editor Laurence Russell [email protected] Marketing and Business Development Belinda Bradford 2020 Space Trends: Ossi Saarela, Space Segment Manager [email protected] at MathWorks Sales Director Front cover photo courtesy of Shutterstock Jill Durfee [email protected] Americas News Review 4,5,38 Sales Manager Q&A Tony Radford, Vice President Global Sales Sam Baird at Advantech Wireless Technologies 6 [email protected] Q&A Rob Spicer, President and CEO, TriSept 10 Circulation Manager Elizabeth George 2020 Space Trends: Ossi Saarela, Space Segment Manager at MathWorks 16 Publisher Richard Hooper Global Broadcast Service provides needed [email protected] communications resiliency 20 Managing Director Gaming at 33,000 feet – But keep an eye on your David Shortland data 24 [email protected] Space Flight Laboratory and Kepler Communications No part of this publication may be transmitted, take a new approach to satellite development and reproduced or electronically stored without the written production 28 permission from the publisher. Q&A Bryan Hartin, Executive Vice President Sales & DS Air Publications does not give any warranty as to Marketing, talks about Certus, Iridium NEXT 30 the content of the material appearing in the magazine, its accuracy, timeliness or fitness for any particular Tactical communications developments 32 purpose. DS Air Publications disclaims all responsibility for any damages or losses in the use and dissemination of the information. All editorial contents Copyright © 2020 DS Air Publications All rights reserved DS Air Publications 1 Langhurstwood Road Horsham West Sussex, RH12 4QD United Kingdom T: +44 1403 273973 F: +44 1403 273972 Email: [email protected] Gaming at 33,000 feet – But keep an eye on your www.satellite-evolution.com data www.satellite-evolution.com | March 2020 3 Issue.pmd 3 18/02/2020, 00:05 News, Views & Analysis is the fifth pilot to complete a flight in VSS Unity. VMS Eve was piloted by Mike ‘Sooch’ Masucci and Frederick ‘CJ’ Sturckow. The move of the spaceship to Spaceport America marks a key step in the relocation of Virgin Galactic’s to the state of New Mexico. In May 2019, Virgin Galactic announced that Virgin Galactic welcomes as part of this move, approximately 100 teammates would move to New Mexico from Mojave, California, Spaceport America would become operational and the vehicles would SpaceShipTwo unity to be transferred to the Gateway to Space. Today, nearly all of those team members have relocated, the spaceport is operationally ready, and both VMS Eve and VSS Unity have now arrived. Of Virgin Galactic’s total current New Mexico spaceport America, New work force, more than 70 team members have been hired locally, the result of a conscious effort to attract New Mexico- based talent. Mexico “New Mexico is going to be the world’s launchpad for Virgin Galactic Holdings has successfully completed another commercial spaceflight,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan vital step on its path to commercial service, relocating Grisham said. “Today marks another step closer: We will have SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity, to its commercial headquarters a genuine Space Valley in Southern New Mexico, a hotbed at Spaceport America’s Gateway to Space building. of innovation and achievement and space tourism VSS Unity, attached to the carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, made development. I congratulate Virgin Galactic’s workers, George the journey from Mojave, California, where the Company’s Whitesides and Sir Richard Branson on today’s successful manufacturing facilities are based. The vehicle landed at flight – and once again I say to them: Welcome to New Mexico, 15.49 MT, where it was greeted by an enthusiastic group of we’re very glad to have you!” teammates who will operate the spaceship in New Mexico. “When Virgin Galactic started moving to New Mexico last This captive carry flight provided an opportunity for year, everyone felt the sheer magnitude of the task ahead, engineers to evaluate VSS Unity for over three hours at high but we were encouraged and excited by the team’s confidence altitude and cold temperatures, a longer period of time than and strong vision for the future,” said George Whitesides, is experienced during missions to space. These CEO of Virgin Galactic. “Today we realized the next step in environmental evaluations of system performance are difficult that dream by bringing our beautiful spaceship to New Mexico. to replicate at ground level, making captive carry missions a We still have significant work ahead, but we are grateful to vital component of VSS Unity’s flight test plan. all our teammates who have made this day a reality.” The flight also provided a valuable opportunity to conduct The relocation of VSS Unity to Spaceport America enables pilot training and familiarization, with veteran Italian Air Force the Company to engage in the final stages of its flight test Test Pilot Nicola ‘Stick’ Pecile joining Chief Pilot Dave ‘Mac’ program. This will begin with a number of initial captive carry Mackay in the cockpit of the spaceship for the first time. Nicola and glide flights from the new operating base in New Mexico, allowing the spaceflight operations team to familiarize themselves with the airspace and ground control. Once these tests are complete, the team will carry out a number of rocket- powered test flights from Spaceport America to continue the evaluation of VSS Unity’s performance. During this phase, the final spaceship cabin and customer experience evaluations will also be concluded in preparation for the start of commercial spaceflight operations. The Spaceship Company, Virgin Galactic’s design, testing and manufacturing arm, remains firmly rooted in Mojave, California. While VMS Eve and VSS Unity are now based in New Mexico, they will make periodic journeys back to Mojave to support ground and flight tests of new spaceships, as well as for vehicle maintenance and upgrade activities. There is significant progress being made on the next two spaceships, including achieving the Weight on Wheels milestone for the second spaceship and completing over 50% of the structural and system part fabrication for the third spaceship, which were announced in January. Dan Hicks, Spaceport America’s Executive Director, congratulated the Virgin Galactic team, saying “This truly is the dawn of a new era for the commercial space sector. We are tremendously proud of our foundational partner Virgin Galactic - as we see and support their historic progress in making human space flight a reality for our beautiful world. The New Mexico and Spaceport America leadership will continue our strong support for our visionary Virgin Galactic teammates; and we Photo courtesy of Virgiin Galactic are looking forward to an exciting 2020!” 4 www.satellite-evolution.com | March 2020 Issue.pmd 4 18/02/2020, 00:05 News, Views & Analysis trains, operating on this section of track, with Cobham EXPLORER 325 Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) terminals, EXPLORER Mobile Gateways and the PRISM PTT+ service, delivering uninterrupted connectivity, even in the most isolated of areas without mobile coverage. This will enable accurate real-time tracking of each train as well as reliable voice and data communication between drivers, maintenance crews and regional control centres. The framework’s intent is to see 1,600 locomotives provisioned with highly reliable BGAN connectivity, ensuring an efficient, profitable and safe railway network. Viasat, fuboTV sign first-of-its-kind In-flight video distribution and technology partnership Viasat Inc and fuboTV have announced a video streaming distribution and technology partnership that advances how content can be delivered and consumed in-flight. The partnership is the first to leverage innovative technology standards from the global technical Photo courtesy of Rumo SA association, the Streaming Video Alliance (the Alliance), and apply them to in-flight connectivity. These standards enable airlines that sign-up for the Viasat/fuboTV partnership to seamlessly make fuboTV’s live streaming premium over-the-top (OTT) and video Globalsat Group, on-demand (VOD) sports, entertainment and news programming available to all passengers—at no charge—on US flights equipped with Viasat satellite Inmarsat and Cobham internet. Technology breakthrough drives higher quality sign multi-year in-flight streaming As the first to implement the open caching specifications of the Streaming Video Alliance in-flight, Viasat and fuboTV are using multicast techniques to deliver live OTT contract with Rumo and VOD content at-scale. Specifically, the companies Globalsat Group, through its Brazilian affiliate Globalsat do have implemented the Alliance specifications over Brasil, has signed a multi-year contract with Rumo SA, the Viasat’s capacity-rich network, to optimize video delivery largest transport and logistics company in Latin America. In of fuboTV’s live TV streaming service, including their free a deal that is set to significantly improve the running of Rumo’s linear channel, fubo Sports Network. Brazilian rail infrastructure, Globalsat Group will provide a This technology optimization provides for more solution leveraging satellite connectivity from Inmarsat,