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The commercial industry’s new High-Throughput Satellites (HTS) present economic and resilient solutions to a U.S. Government increasingly in need of them. Companies already flying these next-generation platforms should have an advantage, according to Skot Butler, Intelsat General Corp. president.
“You really have to be in orbit and operational before the government starts signing up,” Butler said […]

With a thunderous roar, Intelsat 33e, the second of seven planned Intelsat EpicNG high-throughput satellites (HTS), was launched successfully last night from French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Liftoff occurred at 22:16 pm GMT. The Intelsat 33e satellite separated from the rocket’s upper stage and signal acquisition has been confirmed.
Intelsat 33e will bring

There has been a steady stream of recent ideas to reform military acquisition. Nickolas Guertin and James P. Craft have proposed one of the most intriguing. “One technique for speeding up the acquisition process is to use open system architecture (OSA),” they write in “The Cyber Implications of Acquisition Speed: Part IV,” published recently in

Where once it was enough to develop revolutionary technology to send into space, now there is increased emphasis on protecting that technology once it gets into orbit.
“We’re going through a renaissance,” Lt. Gen Jay Raymond told a group of young space professionals at a July 14 conference in Washington. “That renaissance is fueled by the

In an analysis done for NASA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Science and Technology Policy Institute warns of increased competition in space. The institute then offers a plan for the U.S. to maintain the leadership in space that it has enjoyed for more than half a century.
The report is entitled

For decades, the most secure and protected U.S. military satellite network has served both a strategic and a tactical purpose. But now with space becoming a more contested and militarized theater, there is an ongoing conversation within the DoD to separate – or disaggregate – the strategic and tactical functions of the Advanced Extremely High

Stephen Welby uses a beach analogy to describe his mission as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and for the Department of Defense’s quest for a Third Offset Strategy.
“To surf the wave of global innovation, we must paddle out in front,” he says at every stop in what has been a whirlwind seven

Using the U.S. wideband global satellite (WGS) model, Canada’s military plans a two-satellite constellation to fill its communications voids in the remote but fast-changing Arctic, a Canadian official told Space News at the recent MilSatCom USA symposium.
The project is expected to cost $2.4 billion (CDN) and be operational by 2023, Col. Jeff Dooling, director of

Appearing on the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes,” just over a year ago, Gen. John Hyten, who heads U.S. Air Force Space Command, warned that “without satellites, you go back to World War II. You go back to Industrial Era warfare.”
In the April edition of Aerospace America, Maryland research scholar Theresa Hitchens wrote that because civilians

Next month Intelsat will launch IS-33e, the second satellite in the Intelsat Epic high-throughput satellite (HTS) platform. Earlier this year, the launch of the first Epic satellite, IS-29e, provided coverage for the Americas and the North Atlantic shipping lanes. Now the launch of IS-33e will provide a dramatically improved level of satellite connectivity to Intelsat General’s customers

Globalization has made the world a smaller place, with people, goods and services crossing borders with ease unimagined by earlier generations. Much of this globalization is enabled by space-based capabilities, and specifically satellite communications capabilities.
Once the domain of only a few technologically advanced nations, there are now more than 70 nations operating earth-orbiting satellites. More

In a recent Washington Post story, Lexington Institute defense consultant Loren Thompson talked about the daunting task the U.S. Department of Defense faces in its quest for a “Third Offset” strategy: a long-term technology advantage over potential adversaries.
The Pentagon is seeking “an enduring competitive edge that lasts a generation,” Thompson said “But generations in technology

In a recent Washington Post story, Lexington Institute defense consultant Loren Thompson talked about the daunting task the U.S. Department of Defense faces in its quest for a “Third Offset” strategy: a long-term technology advantage over potential adversaries.
The Pentagon is seeking “an enduring competitive edge that lasts a generation,” Thompson said “But generations in technology

Just as Intelsat is launching its new generation of Intelsat EpicNG high-throughput satellites, a new type of small remotely piloted aircraft (sUAS) is being outfitted with beyond-line-of-sight SATCOM systems that are ideally suited to EpicNG spot-beam capabilities.
Known as Class III RPAs, these aircraft are often small enough to fit into a small shipping container. With

Over and over, the U.S. Air Force, the Department of Defense, and industry are calling for “resilience” in the face of a contested space environment.
But how do you measure resilience? How do you test it? How do you even know when you have it, short of an actual conflict?
Winston Beauchamp, the DoD’s Deputy Undersecretary for

The Air Force Air Superiority 2030 Flight Plan is about speed, but not necessarily measured in terms of exceeding the sound barrier.
It’s about how fast potential adversaries are closing in on Air Force capabilities which have allowed the United States to maintain air superiority for decades. The plan defines air superiority as being achieved “when