24 - Space-Library

they expect Northrop Grumman to compete to build the
successor to the Air Force’s Defense Meteorological Satellite
Program spacecraft. Two of those legacy spacecraft have yet to
launch. A provision in the 2012 defense appropriations bill the full
committee adopted during a marathon legislative markup session
“[d]irects the cancellation of DWSS and provides funds for a
new competitive development program,” according to the
committee’s summary of the $630.8 billion spending measure.
The bill, however, would allow the Air Force to spend $250 million
next year on continued sensor development. Another $150 million
is set aside for contract termination. Other military satellite
funded the Air Force’s request for the GPS 3 navigation
satellites, Space Based Infrared System missile-tracking
satellites, and Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) and
Wideband Global Satcom communications satellites. The House
of Representatives in July approved a $649 billion defense
appropriations bill that halved the Air Force’s $445 million DWSS
request but did not call for canceling the program. The House
also fully funded the service’s $552.8 million request for AEHF
and provided additional money for Wideband Global Satcom but
trimmed about $100 million from the Pentagon’s $854 million
request for GPS 3.
programs fared considerably better in the Senate bill, which fully
http://www.spacenews.com/military/110916-bill-cancel-defense-weather-sat.html
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Fri, 16 September, 2011 www.spacenews.com/satellite_telecom/ Peter B. de Selding
部 品 不 足 が Ka バンドの 通 信 衛 星 の 納 入 を 遅 らせている
Component Crunch Slows Delivery of Ka-band Communications Sats
PARIS — A severe shortage of a key component in high-powered
telecommunications satellites intended for television and Internet
services will slow satellite deliveries by several months for the
foreseeable future, industry officials said. The supply bottleneck
for the component in question, the Ka-band traveling wave tube
(TWT), is being exacerbated by the fact that there are only two
companies deemed reliable providers, L3 Communications of New
York and Thales of France. Both companies are having trouble
keeping up with demand for high-power Ka-band TWTs, industry
officials said, adding that TWT manufacturing in Ka-band remains
a skill that is not easily learned and remains in many respects
reliant on handcrafting. The global satellite market is entering a
flat period after several years of growth in commercial satellite
demand and, in the United States, government satellite programs.
telecommunications satellite demand fell abruptly in 2002, leaving
companies with unused production facilities. “It is very nice for
satellite prime contractors and satellite operators to say that
demand for Ka-band satellites is skyrocketing,” the industry
official said. “But given how expensive it is to expand TWT
production, it is only natural that the manufacturers think twice
before doing so.” As a consequence, satellite operators and
prime contractors are scrambling to nail down long-term supply
contracts, at fixed prices, with Thales and L3, a fact that means
TWT prices are not rising as quickly as they might otherwise,
given the spike in demand. Stephen T. O’Neill, president of
Boeing Satellite Systems International, said the bottleneck in
TWT supply for Ka-band satellites is “the biggest constraint to
reducing our [production] cycle.
But Ka-band satellites — for broadband Internet delivery, local
television broadcasts and military communications — are the
fastest-growing niche within the communications satellite market.
Paris-based Euroconsult has found that 18 satellite operators
out of about 40 worldwide have invested in Ka-band in the past
18 months. But the supply chain has proved to be not
immediately responsive to the increased demand, in part because
of the difficulty of building Ka-band TWTs. “You cannot just
transfer someone making Ku- or C-band TWTs and have them
work in Ka-band,” said one industry official familiar with the
process. “And the fact is that while both providers have
expanded production, there is a concern in the industry that we
don’t want to relive 2002, which was very painful.” Global
O’Neill
http://teletechwire.com/20110905/5262.php
It is on the critical path. It is not so much a problem today as it
is for satellites to be ordered.” O’Neill said he did not mean to
criticize either Thales or L3, whose quandary he said he
understood. Among the major satellite manufacturers, El Segundo,
Calif.-based Boeing currently has perhaps the biggest stake in
near-term Ka-band capacity. The company is building three large
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