Skynet is a family of military communications satellites, now operated by Airbus Defence and Space on behalf of the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence (MoD). They provide strategic and tactical communication services to the branches of the British Armed Forces, the British intelligence agencies, some UK government departments and agencies, and to allied governments. Since 2015 when Skynet coverage was extended eastward, and in conjunction with an Anik G1 satellite module over America, Skynet offers near global coverage.
The British National Space Centre (BNSC) was an agency of the Government of the United Kingdom, organised in 1985, that coordinated civil space activities for the United Kingdom. It was replaced on 1 April 2010 by the UK Space Agency.
A satellite telephone, satellite phone or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to other phones or the telephone network by radio link through satellites orbiting the Earth instead of terrestrial cell sites, as cellphones do. Therefore, they can work in most geographic locations on the Earth's surface, as long as open sky and the line-of-sight between the phone and the satellite are provided. Depending on the architecture of a particular system, coverage may include the entire Earth or only specific regions. Satellite phones provide similar functionality to terrestrial mobile telephones; voice calling, text messaging, and low-bandwidth Internet access are supported through most systems. The advantage of a satellite phone is that it can be used in such regions where local terrestrial communication infrastructures, such as landline and cellular networks, are not available.
The Indian National Satellite SystemINSAT, is a series of multipurpose geostationary satellites launched by ISRO to satisfy telecommunications, broadcasting, meteorology, and search and rescue operations. Commissioned in 1983, INSAT is the largest domestic communication system in the Indo-Pacific Region. It is a joint venture of the Department of Space, Department of Telecommunications, India Meteorological Department, All India Radio and Doordarshan. The overall coordination and management of INSAT system rests with the Secretary-level INSAT Coordination Committee.
Eutelsat 133 West A is a Eutelsat operated Eurobird satellite, used primarily for digital television. It was launched in March 2001, and after a short period testing at 33°E, joined Eutelsat 2F4 at 28.5°E in the Clarke Belt, just within the range of satellite dishes pointed at SES' Astra 2 satellites at 28.2° east. It moved to 33° east and joined Eutelsat 33B in July 2015. Then it was moved to 133° west.
AMOS is a series of Israeli communications satellites operated by Israel-based Spacecom. All AMOS satellites were developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) using the AMOS bus satellite bus, except for AMOS-5 which was developed by ISS Reshetnev using the Ekspress bus satellite bus, and AMOS-17 which was developed by Boeing on its BSS-702.
Inmarsat is a British satellite telecommunications company, offering global mobile services. It provides telephone and data services to users worldwide, via portable or mobile terminals which communicate with ground stations through fifteen geostationary telecommunications satellites.
Spacecom, or Space Communication, is an Israeli communications satellite operator in the Middle East, European Union and North America headquartered in the city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Spacecom operates two satellites at orbital position 4° West – AMOS-3 and AMOS-7, one satellite at orbital position 65° East – AMOS-4, and one satellite at orbital position 17° East – AMOS-5.
AMC-6, formerly GE-6, is a commercial broadcast communications satellite owned by SES S.A. Launched on 21 October 2000, from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, AMC-6 became the fifth hybrid C-band / Ku-band satellite in the GE Americom fleet. The satellite provides coverage to the continental United States, Canada, the Caribbean islands, southern Greenland, and Latin America. Located in a geostationary orbit parallel to the eastern United States coastline, AMC-6 provides service to commercial and government customers, and is used as an Internet platform due to its wide coverage, scale and redundancy. Some of its capabilities include Very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) networking, satellite news gathering and Ku-band transceiver service. Launched as GE-6, it was renamed AMC-6 when SES took over GE Americom in 2001, forming SES Americom. This merged with SES New Skies in 2009 to form SES World Skies.
Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) is a constellation of communications satellites operated by the United States Space Force. They are used to relay secure communications for the United States Armed Forces, the British Armed Forces, the Canadian Armed Forces, the Netherlands Armed Forces and the Australian Defence Force. The system consists of six satellites in geostationary orbits. The final satellite was launched on 26 March 2020. AEHF is backward compatible with, and replaces, the older Milstar system and will operate at 44 GHz uplink and 20 GHz downlink. The AEHF system is a joint service communications system that provides survivable, global, secure, protected, and jam-resistant communications for high-priority military ground, sea and air assets.
HYLAS is a British satellite in geostationary orbit. HYLAS, which is an acronym for Highly Adaptable Satellite, is a communications satellite and was launched by the European Ariane 5 launch vehicle from the Guyana Space Centre at Kourou in French Guiana. It is located at the orbital location of 33.5 degrees west and will provide new and innovative services including High Definition Television (HDTV) and interactive satellite delivered broadband services. The satellite will help address the issue of poor broadband coverage in many parts of Europe which have less developed ground infrastructure.
Artemis was a geostationary earth orbit satellite (GEOS) for telecommunications, built by Alenia Spazio for ESA. The Artemis satellite operated at the 21.5E orbital position until 2016, when it was moved to 123E to cover the L-Band spectrum rights for Indonesia's Ministry of Defense.
Astra 5A was one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES at the Astra 31.5°E. Launched in 1997 to the 5° East position by NSAB as Sirius 2, operation of the satellite was transferred to SES in April 2008 and the craft renamed and moved to 31.5° East to open up a new orbital position for the company for the development of markets in Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
The European Data Relay System (EDRS) system is a European constellation of GEO satellites that relay information and data between satellites, spacecraft, UAVs, and ground stations. The first components were launched in 2016 and 2019.
Avanti Communications is a UK based satellite operator, selling wholesale satellite broadband and satellite connectivity services to Internet Service Providers, Mobile Network Operators, Enterprises, Governments and other satellite operators. The Avanti HYLAS fleet of satellites provides coverage of the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
High-throughput satellite (HTS) is a communications satellite that provides more throughput than a classic FSS satellite for the same amount of allocated orbital spectrum, thus significantly reducing cost-per-bit. ViaSat-1 and EchoStar XVII do provide more than 100 Gbit/s of capacity, which is more than 100 times the capacity offered by a conventional FSS satellite. When it was launched in October 2011 ViaSat-1 had more capacity than all other commercial communications satellites over North America combined.
Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS) was a sector of Northrop Grumman from 2018 through 2019. It was formed from Orbital ATK Inc. a company which resulted from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alliant Techsystems in 2015. Orbital ATK was purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2018. Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems designed, built, and delivered space, defense, and aviation-related systems to customers around the world both as a prime contractor and as a merchant supplier. It had a workforce of approximately 12,000 employees dedicated to aerospace and defense including about 4,000 engineers and scientists; 7,000 manufacturing and operations specialists; and 1,000 management and administration personnel. With Northrop Grumman's reorganization of its divisions effective January 1, 2020, NGIS was split, with most of the sector merging with other Northrop Grumman businesses into a new Space Systems sector.
ABS-3A is a communications satellite operated by ABS, providing coverage in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It is positioned in geostationary orbit at 3° West, and offers C and Ku-band payload capacity to support video, data, mobility and government applications. The satellite is the first commercial communications satellite in orbit to use electric propulsion, providing a significant weight savings.
JCSAT-4B, known as JCSAT-13 before launch, is a geostationary communications satellite operated by SKY Perfect JSAT Group (JSAT) which was designed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin on the A2100 platform.
HYLAS-4 is a telecommunications satellite owned and operated by Avanti Communications and manufactured by Orbital ATK that was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket on 5 April 2018.
