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Loss of the OTS 1 Satellite

September 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment
NASA Camera Frame 1

OTS In Orbit - Artist's Impression

The OTS Satellite In Orbit – Artist’s Impression

This is a sorry tale of how four years’ work was destroyed in 54 seconds. Some say that the number thirteen is unlucky and on 13th September 1977, exactly 35 years ago today, this proved to be the case for me and the whole team that developed the OTS satellite. Here’s how things played out.

The European Space Agency’s Orbital Test Satellite (OTS) was one of the very first geostationary, 3-axis-stabilised Ku-Band communications satellites. It was developed as a test bed for a host of new European technologies and transmission techniques aimed at bringing regional TV and trunk telephony services to Europe. It was the forerunner of the highly successful ECS satellites which were subsequently operated and managed by EUTELSAT.

I spent four years working on different aspects of the OTS satellite, the communications transmission design and on the ground segment earth stations. For any interested readers with a technical bent you can check out details on the EXPERIENCE and PUBLICATIONS pages of this site.

In March 1977 I took on the role of designing, planning and implementing the in-orbit testing (IOT) of OTS. This was to be carried out from Telespazio’s Fucino earth station complex in the mountains east of Rome, Italy, and you can check out the Fucino earth station complex with the interactive Google Map on my related blog post [Read more...]

Filed Under: Communication Satellites, Earth Station Locations, Launch Vehicles, Launches, Organisations

Vega Launch – Europe’s Newest Satellite Launcher

February 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Watch live streaming video from eurospaceagency at livestream.com

Tomorrow, 13th February 2012 will see the launch of Europe’s newest satellite launch vehicle, Vega, from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Spaceport at Kourou, weather permitting. This first test flight Vega launch will carry 9 payloads – seven Cubesat satellites plus two Italian Space Agency satellites.

The video feed above provides an extremely interesting overview of the Vega programme, and will switch to live coverage of the launch at 10:40 CET on Monday 13th February.

The Vega project is controlled and managed from ESA’s ESRIN Centre for Earth Observation at Frascati, just south of Rome. An idyllic location, given it is at the heart of some of Italy’s finest vineyards. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Launch Sites, Launch Vehicles, Organisations

WGS-4 Military Communications Satellite Launch

January 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
ULA Launch of Boeing WGS-4 Satellite

ULA Launch of Boeing WGS-4 Satellite

ULA Launch of Boeing WGS-4 Satellite

Boeing has received the first on-orbit signals from the fourth Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite it is delivering to the U.S. Air Force. The signals indicate that WGS-4, the first in the Block II series, is healthy and ready to begin orbital manoeuvres and operational testing.
Further detailed information can be found on Boeing’s website here.

WGS-4 launched on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV vehicle on 19th January 2012 at 7:38 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Controllers confirmed initial contact with the spacecraft 58 minutes later at 8:36 p.m. Eastern time at a ground station in Dongara, Australia. Boeing’s Mission Control Centre in El Segundo, California confirmed that the satellite is functioning normally.

The dramatic launch video, photographs and further information can be found on ULA’s website here.

WGS-4 is an extremely advanced satellite operating at the established X-Band and the high frequency Ka-Band. It uses phased array, shaped beam, steerable spotbeams to provide coverage to support coalition forces [Read more...]

Filed Under: Communication Satellites, Launch Sites, Launch Vehicles, Launches

Watch the Mars Science Lab (MSL) Launch Here

November 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Launch Sites, Launch Vehicles, Solar System

Watch Dramatic NASA NPP Launch

October 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment

NASA’s National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) spacecraft was launched aboard a Delta II rocket at 5:48 a.m. EDT today, on a mission to measure both global climate changes and key weather variables. Just watch this superb live NASA video of today’s NPP launch from Vandenberg.

Now here’s a coincidence. It’s only a few hours ago that I published [Read more...]

Filed Under: Earth Observation Satellites, Launch Sites, Launch Vehicles, Organisations

LA Confidential – X-Band & Artichokes

October 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment
The Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles

The Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles

The Westin Bonaventure Hotel

I’m the sort of person who likes to plan, but despite my best intentions life always seems to be event-driven. Such is the case today, which is why I’m writing this. Let me explain:

I’m on Linkedin and am a member of some 30+ Groups relating to satellite communications. Being a helpful sort of guy I try to answer questions posed by Group members if they relate to a topic that I know something about. Such was the case today when I saw that someone had posed the question along the lines “What is the difference between the use of a Klystron and a TWTA in an earth station transmitter”?
Well, that’s right up my street. I remembered writing a paper related to this way back in 1981. Even though that was 30 years ago and technology evolves, the underlying physics remains the same.

The paper was entitled “Design of a High Power Earth Station Transmitter for the Band 7.9 to 8.4 GHz”. As you’ll all know that is one of the main uplink bands (X-Band) used for military satellite communications and the paper arose out of some work I did on a contract for a particular Government [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cities, Launch Sites, Launch Vehicles, Military Earth Stations

Soyuz Launches 2 Galileo Satellites Today

October 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Watch live streaming video from eurospaceagency at livestream.com

Watch the launch preparations at Kourou, the successful launch, [Read more...]

Filed Under: Countries, Launches, Satellites

First and Last Launches of the Space Shuttle

July 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Well spotted. The internal photo isn’t a picture of the Space Shuttle. It’s the European Space Agency‘s (ESA) first astronaut, Wubbo Ockels, inside the ESA Spacelab D1 in the Shuttle’s cargo bay (both pictures are courtesy of and copyright ©NASA).

I’m writing this piece now because today is to be the very last flight of a space shuttle. As I type, the launch is scheduled for about 5 hours’ time, weather at Cocoa Beach permitting.

Spacelab was developed in parallel and in conjunction with NASA’s space shuttle to be the orbiting laboratory in the Shuttle’s cargo bay, as a follow-on for Skylab and prior to the ISS (International Space Station).

The Spacelab programme was run from ESA’s ESTEC facility (European Space Technology Centre) in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. I worked at ESTEC all through the 1970s – not on Spacelab but on different communications satellites. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Apollo, Astronauts, Countries, Launches, Organisations, Space Shuttle, Spacelab