Satellite News

Intelsat, satellite fleet operator, has successfully negotiated the passage of its out-of-control Galaxy 15 satellite across the path of its Galaxy 13 spacecraft with no signal interruption for Galaxy 13 customers in the second of what likely will be at least four such maneuvers before Galaxy 15 shuts down on its own in August, Intelsat said.

Galaxy 15 stopped responding to commands in April and has since been drifting eastward along the geostationary arc 36,000 kilometers above the equator. Industry officials say it is the first time an uncontrolled satellite has remained electronically active, its transponders still looking for signals to rebroadcast even as it strays far from its assigned orbital position.

Galaxy 15 traveled through the orbital slot of Luxembourg-based SES’s AMC-11 satellite in mid-May. That event caused no service disruptions as Intelsat and SES took measures that included routing some AMC-11 traffic through a 19-meter-diameter antenna at Intelsat’s Clarksburg, Md., teleport.

Unable to shut the satellite down, Intelsat officials then prepared for the Galaxy 13 fly-by July 12-13, using some of the same interference-avoidance techniques developed for the AMC-11 encounter.

The procedure was completed “without incident,” Intelsat Chief Technical Officer Thierry Guillemin said in a July 15 statement. “We will now be implementing the interference-mitigation plan for the fly-by of Galaxy 14, expected to occur at the end of July.”

Intelsat has announced an expansion of its agreement for UHF hosted payload services with the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The ADF exercised its option to purchase the remainder of the specialized UHF communications payload that Intelsat is integrating within its Intelsat 22 satellite, scheduled for launch in the first quarter of 2012.

This announcement follows the historic Memorandum of Understanding signing between the Commonwealth of Australia and the United States, under the terms of which UHF communications resources will be shared between the two countries.

“Our growing partnership with the ADF is an example of the long-term capabilities that can be provided by commercial satellite operators to government and military users. As a result of our direct partnership with the ADF, we are building a payload that will serve the ADF’s growing communication requirements for the next two decades,” said Don Brown, Vice President for Hosted Payload Programs at Intelsat General Corp., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Intelsat.

“This agreement extends Intelsat’s ongoing commitment to the Australian government and exemplifies the powerful tool that hosted payloads offer government users for SATCOM augmentation.”

The Intelsat 22 satellite, which will be positioned at 72 degrees East longitude, will provide optimal coverage for growing opportunities for enterprise networks, mobility and defense-related applications.

Australia has agreed to boost its Intelsat IS-22 UHF communications payload and will share capacity with the United States.

The two announcements mean the Australian government is spending another $175 million to buy the full Intelsat IS-22 UHF payload to improve the military’s communication within the Middle East and Afghanistan regions.

The Intelsat Corporation will launch the satellite in 2012. Under Intelsat’s agreement with Australia, the company is expected to operate the Australian military payload and provide related services for 15 years following the launch.

The Australian Department of Defense had been negotiating to purchase part of the satellite’s payload since April 2009 under the Defense Capability Plan Joint Project 2008 Phase 5A, Minister for Defense John Faulkner said. That deal was signed last month.

But Faulkner’s latest announcement means Australia now will be paying nearly $431 million.

“Purchasing the full satellite payload will improve operational effectiveness and enhance the communications support to Australia’s deployed forces in the Middle East and Afghanistan,” Faulkner informed.

The deal coincides with the visit by the U.S. Department of Defense Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright.

Faulkner also announced that Australia and the United States had signed a Memorandum of Understanding to share their narrowband UHF communications resources.

Cartwright and Australia’s Vice Chief of the Defense Force Lt. Gen. David Hurley exchanged the SATCOM MoU in Canberra last week.

The MoU means that Australia will deliver the United States with added communications capacity for its operations in Afghanistan by using the Australian payload on the IS-22.

In turn the Australian military will have access to communications capacity over the Pacific Ocean region from U.S. satellite resources, Faulkner said in a written statement. The UHF Communications MoU compliments the Wideband Global System satellite partnership between Australia and the United States.

Both defense forces will make “significant savings” and the deal will deliver “a more robust communications capability for the war fighter and add another dimension to the Australian-United States alliance.”

Intelsat, a provider of fixed satellite services, informed about its plan to add Intelsat IS-22 to its fleet in April 2009. It is expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2012 and will serve at the 72 degree East longitude orbital location over the Indian Ocean.

Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems will manufacture the satellite that will be based on a Boeing 702B bus, also used by the WGS constellation.

IS-22 will have 48 C-band and 24 Ku-band 36 MHz equivalent transponders and a UHF payload with 18 25-kHz channels. Under Intelsat’s agreement with Australia, all of the 18-channel UHF payload will be reserved for the Australian Defense Force and the U.S. military.

The UHF payload also will be compliant with U.S. Department of Defense Mil-Std-188-181 and Volna Treaty (Russian) requirements for interoperability.