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Intelsat: ‘We’d put a sensor on every satellite’
April 2nd, 2009 | National Space Symposium | Posted by Michael Hoffman
Richard DalBello, a vice president with Intelsat which has the world’s largest commercial satellite fleet, spoke with the Show Scout about space surveillance and the relationship between the space industry and the U.S. military on that issue.
Q: How is the relationship building between the U.S. military and the space industry in regards to improving space surveillance?
A: Last year at Strategic Space in Omaha, Neb., our CEO stood up and said we’d put a sensor on every satellite.
Q: What are some of the challenges you see with data sharing between commercial companies and the government?
A: The initial one is that it can’t interfere with the commercial mission. We wouldn’t be a sensor program. We’re not looking to replace a military program. What we’re saying is if you have developed optical or IR wave length sensor that would be relevant to this mission, and if you could supply it, we would be interested in putting them on our satellites. It’s a mutual benefit because obviously we would look to have some lease revenue from that but we’d also contribute data. Eventually you could have the whole geo-arc linked with sensor so you could have better awareness for what is going on.
Q:How far off is the military and space industry from making serious progress on relationship to collect large amounts of data from commercial satellites?
A: It’s a slow progress. It’s hard to get people to work across company boundaries and really hard to get people to work across international boundaries. We’re closer than anything on the data center, but we’re still not there yet. What we said is that if we can actually create this model where you could add other things, like you could easily add RF interference data on top of that. But there is a lot that goes into it. You have a lot of issues. You have to deal with all the legal issues and liability and identification. You have to deal with practical technical issues and validation of information. How do you know something is true.
Tags: Air Force, Intelsat, National Space Symposium 2009, space surveillance
Key space leaders flock to Colorado Springs
March 29th, 2009 | National Space Symposium | Posted by Michael Hoffman
Space leaders will huddle over the next four days at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Col., for the 25th National Space Symposium.
Officials from across the space community including Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, National Reconnaissance Office director Scott Large and even Bill Nye “The Science Guy” are scheduled to speak.
This year’s theme is “the Next Space Age” as the U.S. enters its 51st year of space flight, but more immediate topics such as the expansion of the Chinese space program and the level of funding space assets receive in the President’s budget will certainly garner attention.
The number of exhibitors has dropped from the 350 who attended last year to 140 this year in what would appear to be an effect of the global economic crises, but the Show Scout will be in Colorado Springs all week.
Check back for updates.
Tags: Air Force, China, National Space Symposium 2009, NRO