Emerging markets to drive investments in EO data and services: Euroconsult report

Paris, October 9, 2014

According to Euroconsult's newly published report, Satellite-Based Earth Observation: Market Prospects to 2023, 353 earth observation (EO) satellites are expected to be launched over the next decade compared to 162 over 2004-2013. The report claims that this will result in $36 billion in manufacturing revenues over the period, an 85% increase over the previous decade.

Organisations from 41 countries are expected to launch EO satellite capacity by 2023, compared to 33 over the previous decade. The report notes that supply from government continues to grow strongly as more countries expand their portfolios of EO satellites to meet various policy needs. In addition, newcomers are launching EO satellite capacity to develop a local industrial base, create the building blocks for a space program, obtain greater autonomy in data acquisition, and/or meet local demand for data and services. As a result, investment in EO and meteorology programs reached a high in 2013 at $8.7 billion, a 13% increase over 2012, the report states.

MOL’s mysteries

by Dwayne A. Day
Monday, September 8, 2014


The Air Force’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) of the 1960s is finally being declassified. A significant document release this summer included hundreds of illustrations of the overall laboratory, many of its components and subsystems, and also proposed variants and upgrades. As a result, it is now possible to gain a good understanding of how MOL was configured and how it operated.

When MOL was cancelled in summer 1969, it was a major financial blow to McDonnell Douglas.

Nevertheless, many MOL questions remain unanswered and will have to await further document declassifications or former MOL personnel discussing the program and their role in it. For example, what contractors were involved in the development of MOL and what were their roles? How did they work together, especially when some parts of the project were unclassified and some were deep black.
Because MOL was an unusual program with both unclassified and classified elements, many details about it were released while it was under development, although this conveniently helped to distort the image of what MOL was actually for. Based upon the unclassified parts alone, it is clear that MOL was a large and expensive project. In 1967, the Air Force awarded fixed-price incentive-fee contracts to Douglas Aircraft for $674.7 million and McDonnell for over $180 million. Douglas was responsible for the laboratory module’s unpressurized and pressurized sections and McDonnell for the Gemini B spacecraft. Other sources indicate that McDonnell was supposed to provide four Gemini B spacecraft with options for two or more later. Douglas signed subcontracts for such components as the waste management system, attitude control, and life support. When Douglas and McDonnell merged later that year, the combined company was responsible for a very large Department of Defense space contract. Thus, when MOL was cancelled in summer 1969 it was a major financial blow to McDonnell Douglas.

US Air Force to launch new surveillance satellites

Washington (AFP) July 23, 2014
The US Air Force will launch new satellites Wednesday to track those of other countries and counter possible threats to American spacecraft, officials said.
Two satellites are due to be sent into high-altitude orbits for the first time as part of a program that until a few months ago was strictly secret and classified.
The satellites will be launched from Delta IV rockets from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and head to the geosynchronous belt, 22,300 miles (35,900 kilometers) above Earth, where crucial US satellites are also orbiting.
"This neighborhood watch twosome will help protect our precious assets in geo (high-altitude orbit), plus they will be on the lookout for nefarious capability other nations might try to place in that critical orbital regime," US Air Force Space Command chief General William Shelton told reporters.
Shelton said the satellites would dramatically improve the US military's picture of satellite traffic in the geosynchronous orbit, as the new satellites will be much closer at the higher altitude.
Current space surveillance is conducted from the Earth or from lower altitudes of a few hundred miles above Earth.
The project is known as the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program, or GSSAP, and was first publicly acknowledged in March.