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07 Dec 17. NDAA would impact major Pentagon satellite communications provider. Key Points:
• A NDAA provision would bar Pentagon from buying satellite services from countries like Russia
• Commercial satellite communications companies that do business with DoD launch from Russia
A fiscal year 2018 US defence authorisation bill provision governing what is known as covered countries could impact one of the Pentagon’s suppliers of satellite communication (SATCOM) capabilities. The bill would ban the Defense Department from procuring satellite services after 2022 from either satellites or rockets built in covered countries – China, North Korea, or Russia. The bill also adds Russia to the list of covered countries.
“Clearly if these rules go through and are enforced in the way that is intended, then the US government will place the Russian space industry offside for companies like us that want to do business with the Pentagon,” Inmarsat CEO Rupert Pearce told Jane’s on 7 December at the Space Commerce Conference and Exposition (SpaceCom) in Houston, Texas. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
07 Dec 17. DigitalGlobe plans to bid for NGA’s EnhancedView contract follow-on. Key Points:
• DigitalGlobe plans to compete for the follow-on to its 2010 EnhancedView contract award
• Planet and Airbus could be competitors
DigitalGlobe plans to compete for the follow-on programme to its US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) EnhancedView contract when it opens to bids in 2020.
“We’re quite confident of the ability for DigitalGlobe to continue to provide the sort of foundational imagery that we provide to the US government,” DigitalGlobe executive vice-president and chief technology officer Walter Scott told Jane’s on 6 December at the Space Commerce Conference and Exposition (SpaceCom) in Houston, Texas.
NGA in 2010 awarded DigitalGlobe a USD3.5 billion contract with a period of performance of 10 years if all options were exercised, according to a company statement. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
07 Dec 17. Asgardia-1 has now been deployed in a low earth orbit from the Cygnus OA-08 vehicle a few hours after its release from the International Space Station, becoming the first nation to have all of its territory in space. The satellite has 0.5 TB of data storage capacity, carrying the nation’s Constitution, national symbols, and the personally selected data of the Asgardian citizenship. The satellite was launched on 12th November from the Wallops flight facility in Virginia as a part of the OA-8 Antares-Cygnus mission to the International Space Station. Asgardia-1 deployed early today after Cygnus de-docked from the ISS on 6 December and moved to a higher altitude to complete its second mission.
Now that the satellite has been successfully launched into open space, Asgardia’s focus will turn to its parliamentary elections, running until March 2018. The Parliament of Asgardia is comprised of 13 electoral districts which are language based subdivisions for electing Members of Parliament (MPs). Asgardian district boundaries are determined by the distribution of the most spoken languages in Asgardia, based on what Asgardians have indicated as their primary language during citizenship registration. Asgardians whose languages are not represented by any of the 12 single language electoral districts may choose to join the 13th electoral district, which represents all other languages spoken by Asgardians. Anyone who is 18 or older, and has accepted the Constitution of Asgardia, will automatically be assigned to an electoral district which represents their spoken language.
Igor Ashurbeyli, Asgardia’s Head of Nation, said, “The launch of the Asgardia-1 satellite earlier this month which represented the first independent nation in space has created a huge amount of excitement around the world. Today, I am delighted to share that