FIRST UP Satcom | Facebook willing to invest in satellite user equipment

View this email in your browser News from Satellite 2017 SpaceNews is providing daily coverage of Satellite 2017 this week  with support from Cobham and China Great Wall Industry Corp. Wednesday, March 8 News from the Show Facebook willing to invest in satellite user equipment Caleb Henry — Facebook wants to help the satellite industry drive down costs on user equipment so it can leverage space technology to bring internet access to the rest of the planet. Wesley Wong, the social media network's point-man for strategic technology partnerships and sourcing, said Facebook continues to view satellite as one of the best ways to bridge the digital divide, and wants to collaborate with more satellite companies to reach that desired outcome. "If there are opportunities to collaborate with industry to innovate and drive standardization to help reduce that cost, we'd be more than willing to evaluate," Wong said March 7.   Inmarsat CEO hints at more advanced Global Xpress satellites Caleb Henry — Inmarsat says that it plans to continue building up Global Xpress beyond the four Boeing-built satellites initially meant to comprise the entire system. "We are at the beginning of the GX story," said Inmarsat CEO Rupert Pearce. He said Inmarsat will likely launch more satellites beyond the fourth Global Xpress spacecraft ordered in 2013, and the two Inmarsat-6 spacecraft it ordered in 2015.   Time for DoD to relinquish reigns on SSA, Pentagon expert says Phillip Swarts — The ever growing number of satellites means a new organization is needed to catalog and track objects in orbit for the commercial space sector, experts said March 7. "At some point the space community needs to say 'we better get our arms around this management problem before people start running into each other,' because that really ought to be chilling," said John Hill, principal director of space policy for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. Eutelsat first customer for Blue Origin's New Glenn Jeff Foust —Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos disclosed new details about his company's New Glenn launch vehicle March 7 and announced it had signed up its first customer, commercial satellite operator Eutelsat. Bezos, appearing in an on-stage interview at the Satellite 2017 conference here, said the rocket, set to start launches in 2020, will have a payload performance that will make it it one of the largest vehicles in service.   Is imagery the 'killer app' for smallsats? Debra Werner —  Peter Wegner, Spaceflight Industries chief technology officer, is convinced the killer app for small satellites is imagery. Joe Rothenberg, the former engineering director for Terra Bella, the Earth-imaging company purchased by Google and now being sold to Planet, isn't so sure. Military, industry have high hopes for space acquisition reform  Phillip Swarts — Acquisition reform must begin with closer cooperation between the military and commercial space sectors, industry advocates said March 7. The Defense Department needs to ask "when does it make sense to use commercial versus an allied capacity versus a military asset?" said John Monahan, senior vice president for satellite products at Kratos Defense. "I think we're just beginning that for space," he said. "It's going to be hard. It's not going to be easy and it's going to rattle some cages in terms of authorities and all that. But with the pace of the threats today, if we don't do this we all know what's going to happen." Broad supplier base lends support to smallsat revolutionaries Debra Werner — When Hawkeye 360 solicited proposals in 2016 to build its radio-frequency monitoring satellites, the firm found 25 companies capable of meeting its requirements. "That's a great commentary on the industry," said Russ Matijevich, Hawkeye 360 vice president. "Small businesses can grab that expertise at the human level and at the hardware level." That broad supplier base contrasts starkly with the state of the small satellite industry when companies like Iridium, Teledesic and Globalstar were planning large satellite communications constellations more than 20 years ago.   In Brief Tauri Group Space and Technology is now Bryce Space and Technology. The rebranding follows a corporate restructuring that spun off Tauri Group's space, satellite and cyber consulting business under principal Carissa Bryce Christensen while keeping the Tauri name for the group's Homeland Security work.   Disrupt Yourself  "We spend millions each year on R&D...The only way for us to go ahead and continue advancing as a product company is to go ahead and put our own products out of business every 18 to 24 months."  — John Monahan, senior vice president for satellite products at Kratos Defense, on the rapid advancement of satellite technology. Wednesday's Best Bets Cyber-Security and Interference Forum kicks off at 9:45 a.m. in Room 201. A Complete Dummies Guide to Building A LEO Network 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM | Room 202 Iridium CEO Matt Desch "will share what it takes to survive in this newspace era through personal anecdotes and lessons learned from the Iridium NEXT program." Commercial Launch 4:15 PM - 5:30 PM | Room 202 Top execs from Arianespace, Blue Origin, ILS, Lockheed Martin, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and SpaceX Follow SpaceNews Advertise with Us SN FIRST UP Satcom is sent out every Wednesday by SpaceNews Staff Writer Caleb Henry and SpaceNews Editor-in-Chief Brian Berger. Copyright © 2017 SPACENEWS, All rights reserved.