The Orbiter: Looking Back, Looking Forward

DECEMBER 2016

The Orbiter Looking Back, Looking Forward

CONTENTS 3

The Year of Beginning Again

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2016: A Year Full of Promise

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Looking Back, Looking Forward: Words from Our Chapters

Photo Album: The 2016 Future Leaders Dinner

Join the SSPI Conversation!

Upcoming Events SSPI-MA Annual Winter Fundraiser & Networking Event, January 26, 701 Pennsylvania Ave NW #900, Washington, DC, USA. Click here for more information.

2017 Hall of Fame Benefit Dinner, March 7, Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mt Vernon Pl NW, Washington, DC 20001, USA. Click here for more information.

2017 SSPI Chairman’s Reception, March 7, 801 Mt Vernon Pl NW, Washington, DC 20001, USA. Click here for more information.

Learn more about upcoming events at www.SSPI.org

The Year of Beginning Again

By Robert Bell

The past year was when the satellite industry learned that we have to begin again.

For decades, satellite was renowned for the stability of its business performance and the evolutionary pace at which its technology changed. That’s what made the industry attractive to private equity in this new century: we offered a stable stream of earnings in a business whose performance did not correlate with the business cycle of most other industries.

What a difference a year makes. At the end of December 2016, it is clear that the price per kilogram to orbit is heading downward and that transponder cost per megahertz or megabit is going the same way. Despite capacity gluts in some markets, it is clear that there will be a lot more satellites and bandwidth in orbit in coming years. The old ways have changed and every business in the industry is adapting at a furious pace, driving a wave of innovation, fear and excitement not seen for years.

I’m proud to say that the same is true of SSPI. Like our industry, we had predictable finances and changed at an evolutionary pace for years and years. Those days are gone – and our best days are still ahead. This was the year when SSPI began all over again. We have focused our work on four key missions, each supporting our goal of making satellite the most effective industry in the world at attracting and managing the talent that powers innovation.

Attracting the Next Generation Our Next Generation program reaches out directly to talented young people to educate them about

the career prospects in our industry. We have a clear strategy focusing on university student organizations devoted to space – a ready-made audience for our message but one that knows amazingly little about the only business that does business in space. During 2016, we: • Held our second annual student team competition with the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space USA (SEDS USA), asking student teams to propose a solar power generating satellite in orbit using the latest technology. A group of SSPI Mentors advised the teams and selected the winner, which came from Purdue University.

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• Launched our first student competition with UKSEDS, the British arm of the organization, which challenged students to propose a satellite network to support Martian exploration and colonization.

• Began discussions with SEDS Canada about a third student competition.

• Presented scholarships and travel stipends to industry events to 10 students and young working professionals to help advance their careers.

New Century Workforce

This campaign aims to equip companies in our industry to improve their talent attraction and management practices. During 2016, we: • Published our second workforce study, “Launch Failure,” in partnership with Korn Ferry. It identified key challenges facing our ability to innovate. Our business tends to recruit from the same cadre of experienced people in their 40s and 50s and to do a dismal job of retaining entry-level employees who enter the business from graduate or undergraduate programs. The problem is that we tend to fish in a limited and shrinking pool, while giving insufficient attention to growing a new generation of innovative employees.

• Launched a series of webinars on human resources topics.

The first webinar, “Disruptors in the Talent Market,” was sponsored by Korn Ferry and featured the head of their aerospace group, Clarke Havener.

• Brought a group of industry recruiters to SpaceVision, the annual SEDS USA conference, where they encountered more than 300 young people passionate about space and seeking careers. Our HR executives interviewed candidates, held resume-writing and interview workshops, and provided a panel discussion to educate attendees about this exciting industry.

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Leaders Quest

SSPI has always been about the people of this industry, and our Leaders Quest campaign recognizes the industry’s leading innovators at the beginning, middle and end of their careers. More important than recognition, we learn from them through written and video interviews that share the career strategies and personal values that have brought them success. We are also in the business of cultivating leaders through our Chapters around the world. In 2016, we: • Inducted John Celli, Richard Hadsall, Penelope Longbottom, Philip Rubin, Phillip Spector and Andrew Sukawaty into the Satellite Hall of Fame, joining such industry luminaries as David Thompson, Dean Olmstead, Robert Berry, Steve Dorfman, Dr. Harold Rosen and Sir Arthur C. Clarke.

• Identified Dr. Jennifer Dawson, Pascale Dumit and Erin Feller as future leaders of our industry with our Promise Awards and named David Meyers, CEO of DataPath, as our Mentor of the Year.

• Launched a new Chapter in Silicon Valley, the center of so much satellite innovation, and rebooted our existing Chapters in metro New York City and the United Kingdom with new leadership and a revitalized mission.

Better Satellite World

Underpinning everything we do is the knowledge that satellite is different from the rest of the telecom world. Social media is fun. Video messaging is cool. Texting and tweeting keep you connected.

Satellite saves lives. It changes lives for the better and creates futures for people who had practically none.

The problem is how few people – young talent, policymakers and future customers – have any idea. For them, satellite is out of sight and definitely out of mind. We began working two years ago to change that fact with a campaign called Better Satellite World. With the help of media outlets and the corporate sponsors who use our content and spread the word, our campaign has generated over 2 million impressions and media exposure worth more than $270,000.

Partner associations have circulated our content at WRC-2015 to make the case the spectrum we use. By the end of this year, we will have published 26 dramatic stories and videos, all available free to the industry to help demonstrate our value.

Rising to New Heights

Programs like these have made it possible for us to attract 5,500 members to our LinkedIn group and more than 2,000 Twitter followers. They join our nearly 4,000 members and the more than 50 sponsoring companies in following and supporting our mission.

New beginnings are challenging. Starting over is tough. But it is the only way people and organizations have ever found to rise to new heights. So say thanks to 2016 for all it has encourage us to do and say hello to 2017 for all that it may bring.

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Looking Back, Looking Forward:

Words from Our Chapters

As 2016 draws to a close, we asked several of our SSPI Chapters to share thoughts on the past year and what lies ahead.

2006-2016: Celebrating 10 Years of Progress

By Mauro Wajnberg, SSPI Brazil. This year the Brazilian Chapter completed 10 years of uninterrupted activities and we took this opportunity to celebrate that milestone in our last event held on Nov 24th. We presented a special session showing all we have done over these years, and some interesting statistics: since 2006 we made 27 events with a total of 268 sessions given by 140 different speakers for an estimated audience of 2,450+ people! Many gifts, including a Smart TV, were raffled among the audience to celebrate the achievement.

Specifically on the latest regional trends, the two events held in 2016 were an opportunity to present and debate the hottest satellite themes in the region: HTS satellites, mobility applications, IoT, UHD, space debris, regulatory challenges. The quick changes undergoing in our industry and the profound changes still to occur very soon shall demand increased need for the professional update, one of the key SSPI missions.

SSPI Brazil’s directors are: Mauro Wajnberg (Telesat), Guilherme Saraiva (Telecine), Edio Gomes (Hispamar), Edson Meira (Telesat), Guilherme Cavalcanti (independent), Patricia Schmitt (SES) and Alexandre Goncalves (iDirect).

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A Year of Great Change

By Chris Stott, Isle of Man Chapter. First, on behalf of all of us in the Isle of Man Chapter of the SSPI, our sincerest best wishes to you, your chapters, and your companies, for the New Year.

From co-sponsoring the annual Better Satellite World Awards with our sister chapter in the UK, to co-hosting gallery openings, astronomy evenings, astronaut speakers for the public and at our schools, space and aerospace stamp issues, documentary film private screenings, industry speakers, and more. It’s been a busy year for us at the Isle of Man chapter. We continue to grow in members and to expand our outreach and activities.

As a Chapter we have also been asked to act as the official space and satellite industry liaison to the Isle of Man Government.

To whit, and at the Government’s request, the Chapter is now preparing an industry position on a new space policy for the Isle of Man covering commerce, education, manufacturing, spectrum and regulatory issues, all aimed at further increasing the Island’s competitiveness in the international space and satellite industry.

As a Chapter, we will then seek to tailor this work as an input into the UKs new request for space policy inputs as well.

We sometimes see more of each other at satellite conferences than at home on the Island. Such is the nature of our business.

Yet if you come and see us we can ensure a great welcome for you, and even offer you an opportunity to speak to the members at a lunch or a dinner set-aside just for you.

I believe our industry is already witnessing change, wrought by exponential technology, aka ‘disruptive’ technology. The effects of faster computers making faster computers enabling advances in a range of technologies, but all based upon greater connectivity.

Spectrum is spectrum and that is what ManSat specializes in, and this should not change.

However, how that spectrum is offered to the market place is a revolution in the making.

Can we rely upon the classic transponder lease model in a world of HTS satellites and exponentially increasing demand?

From bringing the next billion people on line to the next 30 billion devices, the market fundamentals of access are changing. The Internet is the greatest drug ever devised by the human race. It’s the only thing we want more of, faster, and ever cheaper. Satellite will always be needed as it is a crucial connectivity backbone of global telecommunications, but that use will be ever evolving and changing.

We support many organizations at ManSat, but the one most focused on this aspect of change is Geeks Without Frontiers (www.geeks.org). At their recent ‘Connectivity Is The Revolution’ held in conjunction with the World Bank at GWU in Washington in October it was mind blowing to hear the vision of the future from Facebook, Google, and others. I would absolutely recommend reading over the results of their event. Fascinating.

As Heraclitus said, ‘Change is the only constant.’

There is so very much the space establishment and New Space can learn from the other in the future. I’ve been saying this for almost 20 years now…it’s OK, no one ever listens.

New Space always seems amazed that satellite exists. Yet here we are building, launching licensing and profiting from placing spacecraft in orbit driving a whole global

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economy. Everything New Space needs to learn, every issue and challenge they are facing… we’ve already been there and done that with satellite. How to license and regulate. How to access spectrum. How to finance. How to make a profit for our shareholders. Wow. If only they’d listen.

Then there is so much we in satellite can learn from New Space! How to break the norms, to disrupt existing market and business models and to take nothing for granted.

How to approach the market and its solutions in a whole new manner. Just because something has been done one way for years, doesn’t make it correct. You don’t have to wear a suit to be in business. New Space brings a vital energy to our industry and it also opens new avenues of business.

After all, we’re all in the space industry together. Who knows where the future will take us all?

The Isle of Man is thriving as a center for space commerce and more, from NGOs to finance to manufacturing on the ground and in space.

Come visit us on the Isle of Man, the SpaceIsle, and again, may you enjoy a prosperous and Happy New Year!

Credit: Steve Jurvetson, Google, Source: Ray Kurzweil, DFJ

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2016: The Rise of the Constellation

By Charity Weeden, Mid-Atlantic Chapter. In 2016, the FCC received information through filings for over 7000 non-geostationary satellites with the bulk meant to address the growing global need for broadband connectivity. This surge in the projected number of satellites is felt strongly here in the mid-Atlantic region, impacting all facets of the satellite community.

There is great interest on how these constellations could signal a shift to mass manufacturing of satellites, leveraging today’s technological advances in electronics, materials, and data processing. Many are focused on the outlook for new sources of timely launch access. The pending applications are driving the need to carefully plot out spectrum usage and ground system placement. The staggering numbers of satellites being planned is also accelerating the U.S. Government’s consideration of how it can most effectively contribute to the effective space traffic management for all earth-orbiting spacecraft: commercial, research and governmental. And, all of the above will be played out in a new Administration, which adds its own level of complexity.

The view from the mid-Atlantic region is one of cautious optimism. Many here vividly recall the emergent satellite constellation environment of the 90s and are consequently cautious as they assess these new initiatives; others are confident the time is right as our society has come to expect consistent and high capacity connectivity to meet continuously escalating demand, that the investment and markets are there, and that the personalities involved have the wherewithal to make it happen.

We wish the very best to our fellow satellite professionals around the world for a prosperous, and certainly exciting, 2017!

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A Year of Great Collaboration

By Monty Dent & Jon Vince, Rocky Mountain Chapter. The biggest change seen this year has been that the space science community in Boulder has benefitted from the Silicon Valley LEO constellation companies investing in offices in Boulder. I think that is a function of the CU aerospace engineering school providing a talent pool, proximity to major primes in Denver and the Springs and Boulder’s emerging startup scene. Another change has been how tentative everyone has been surrounding a Trump presidency. Military spending increasing only benefits the military space industry in the Springs. But slashing NASA’s earth sciences budget will eventually harm Boulder’s space science community, especially with the various NOAA and NASA projects based from there.

What I have noticed is that some TV networks are cutting their bandwidth because they are looking at new ways of delivery. Rumor has it that AT&T/DirecTV plans on doing away with satellite in 5 years. With one of the major teleports for AT&T/DirecTV being in Castle Rock, there is concern over what that’s going to do to the satellite industry. A few others say that’s nothing more than some bean counters making that statement, not knowing the impact of the end user that uses DirecTV. Lean management has been implemented by most every company over the past three years, which has negatively impacted Chapter operations. Very few companies are spending for marketing or sponsorship. Less swag, less travel, less attendance, layoffs, etc. In an effort to maximize efficiency in order to respond to declining sales/ satellite use, companies are still cutting.

As far as new opportunities go in the area, I’m starting to see an increase in request for HTS for Video over IP via satellite. But New Space has not entirely been embraced by baby-boomer establishment. Honestly, the major primes in Denver are going through a workforce restructuring in which the older generation is being retired to allow for younger talent to emerge. With that will come a willingness to embrace new methodologies and processes, including new space opportunities.

Additionally, establishment has sometimes treated New Space as competition where procurement cycles are in a down period for their traditional product lines.

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2016: An Investment in the Future

By Sean Casey, Silicon Valley Chapter. The space industry is continuing to grow in Silicon Valley. Select investors have put their money to work in well-known start-ups such as Planet (formerly Planet Labs) or Spire. We have, however, seen a host of other hardware, software, and service companies get started since the founding of our SIlicon Valley chapter. Astro Digital and Satellogic are two small sat companies who are aggressively pursuing the earth imaging market. Within the three geospatial imaging parameters of spatial imaging frequency, temporal imaging frequency, and spectral imaging frequency, various start-ups are laying claim to technologies and markets that differ from now established players like Terra Bella (previously Skybox), Planet, and Spire. Hyperspectral and synthetic aperture payloads are under development within other stealth start-ups seeking early stage seed and series A funding. Ground station companies such as ATLAS and BridgeSat are offering communications solutions for a growing community of commercial and academic satellite platforms. Launch services beyond SpaceX and Orbital-ATK are planning to offer access to LEO and beyond. RocketLab and Vector Space System have signed major payload contracts with many other companies, i.e. BSpace, looking to provide complementary services. Established aerospace companies active in Silicon Valley include Space Systems Loral, Airbus, and Lockheed Martin. Each has been courting early stage companies for both partnerships and investments. SSL is partnered with Made In Space for robotic in-orbital manufacturing whereas the new A^3 Airbus group has made several strategic investments based upon existing programs and customers needs. The topic of orbital debris mitigation was discussed at a recent Orrick Space panel. Governmental organizations beyond NASA have opened their new Silicon Valley offices including the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA).

Investments in the NewSpace sector have backed off from their 2015 high.

With SpaceX and OneWeb garnering over $1.6B in funds last year leaving $400M $600M for other early stage companies, the investment numbers for 2016 look to something south of $200M. Looking at early stage cleantech investments, our NewSpace investment numbers for 2010 - 2016 are similar to an early bubbling phase of an attractive investment sector.

Many investors are awaiting more news on investment exit with attractive 10x return on investments (ROIs) typical of the VC Early stage spaceflight start-up from UK Innovate visit Silicon Valley to pitch industry. Other larger investment groups - investors and network with other bay area space start-ups. Hosted at Bootup

by Silicon Valley Space Center and our local SSPI chapter, the event allowed such as the country of Luxembourg - are local angel investors and venture capital firms to connect with companies making aggressive early stage investment offering hardware and software services from low earth orbit and beyond.

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in space mining companies Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries. Several lunar landing start-ups including Moon Express, SpaceIL, and Team Indus have secured launch manifests for beyond GEO mission to the lunar surface. Most recently, our SSPI chapter hosted with Silicon Valley Space Center and Boot-up an investor pitch event for UK Innovate to showcase ten (10) very exciting hardware and software spaceflight start-ups. Nearly 100 people attended the pitch event and post-pitch cocktail hour. This year we have also seen several investor focused events including the Hogan Lovell’s Small Sat Symposium, Space 2.0 by Infocast, and two separate finance events by Satellite FInance and Raymond-James/ Milbank. Space meet-ups are nearly monthly with support from the AIAA-SF, the Silicon Valley Space Center, and other regional business roundtable groups.

Our educational sponsorship for 2016 was awarded to an exciting high school program from Denali Summit Charter School. Their research proposal to fly tardigrades aboard the ISS (and later to the Moon) has engaged a highly motivated student group to consider the challenges of developing a sustainable microgravity habitat for tardigrade and serve as the very first lunar habitat for terrestrial organisms. The NewSpace industry has excited many groups from within Silicon Valley and expects to do so for the remainder of this decade and beyond.

Our SV chapter awarded our first space technology research grant to a team of five students from the local Denali Summit High School who are studying the reproduction tardigrades in a microgravity environment. Initial fund will support early stage laboratory work with an expected crowdfunding to cover the cost of a suitable space quality habitat that meets cubesat (1U) mass, volume, and power requirements.

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A Year of Looking for Opportunity under every Rock and Asteroid

By Michael Greenwood, Southeast Chapter. Atlanta GA, home city of the SE chapter of course is a vibrant hotspot for broadcast, satellite and terrestrial transport business – from broadcasters Turner and CNN, through Intelsat, ViaSat as local satellite operators, to service providers like Encompass Digital Media, Digital Glue, Extreme Reach, AT&T and also hardware / software / integration providers like Crystal, Nevion, Advantech Wireless, Comtech EF Data to many consulting services [including our own SSPI-SE’s Dick Tauber, Jack Linder and Steve Marlowe’s Consulting businesses], our local players are all facing immense challenges with the turmoil of new technologies, advances in compression and modulation and disruptive products and consumer habits.

Consensus in our region about the future of the satellite industry really echoes what the main operators have already got in place and what they are working towards technologically – the following is a list of these innovations that are impacting and being driven by companies with presence in the SE Chapter zone.

Hybrid communications networks – satellite + fiber networks + Internet on and off ramps + integration with bonded cellular – either ‘in-house’ or smart collaboration with ‘subject matter experts’ or indeed synergistic joint ventures – looking beyond GEO, connecting with LEO [and MEO] constellations – like Intelsat’s JV with Polar Orbit One Web. New Satellite Architecture – HTS ‘competes’ with terrestrial delivery & offers new flexibility to end users, lowering the cost per MBit delivered to end users – addresses the new Aero & Maritime markets based upon demand for connectivity any time, any place, anywhere.

New Hardware Designs – from small aperture Flat Panel mobile antennas which are steered electronically, to the satellite of the future whose hardware is a ‘cookie cutter’ standard physical bus, but the capabilities and coverage is Software Configured. AutoDeployable antennas & Media IP VSAT systems point to: IP Convergence – standardization on IP being the transport format for everything is already here.

Advanced Modulation & Compression – squeezing the most out of every Bit and every Hz. Compelling Services – Satellite success going forward includes all of the above, but having ‘sticky services and ‘relevant services’ which target key needs is the way forward – I think we all know that the ‘build it and they will come’ era is over for traditional satellite – exploiting the Five 9s reliability of satellite and the intrinsic power of ‘One to many’ Broadcast to any spot on earth has to be capitalized on. Remote services are key to growth: Aero/Mobility/Remote Medical/ Oil and Gas/IOT, The Internet of Things – Services for the connected world!

The old chestnut phrase ‘it’s the worst of times and it’s the best of times’ is applicable, because we are all defending our core traditional businesses but all excited about the

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possibilities of change and re-inventing ourselves in the satellite and broadcast industries – E Games & Drone Racing, who knew?

In the last year the topics of our chapter meeting programs really tell the story of how we are looking at things: High Throughput Satellites [HTS]; The Teleport of the Future; The Need for Blue Light Protection [dangers to our eyesight in the tech world]; The move from Hardware to Software & the Transition to IP Convergence; and a Guided Tour of a local T5 Data Center.

Very telling is that a social mixer, where we get to network and discuss all these topics was very well attended, as were our ‘blockbuster’ joint meetings with our local SMPTE/SBE & AES chapters reviewing developments in hardware/software and industry trends, in our 3 ‘tradeshow wraps’: NAB Vegas, IBC Amsterdam and the Consumer Electronics Show [CES] also in Vegas.

A bright spot, which ties in with the SSPI HQ program to find the next generation of recruits to our industry are initiatives and events we have held or attended aimed at attracting and educating HS and College students. Specifically our Board members have presented to students at GA Perimeter University, and High School STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering & Math] conferences and tutorials. Talks are underway with student and faculty bodies at GA Tech School of Aerospace Engineering and the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics [AIAA] chapter of The University of Alabama and GA Tech chapters – not to mention the GA Tech Center for Space Technology & Research [CSTAR] … and finally we are pursuing a joint SSPI-SE/SMPTE meeting with a large multiindustry group called TAG [Technology of GA] …… the bottom line is we are shaking the bushes on interaction with students in an exciting way + we have ‘put our money where our mouths are’ and executed on a modest sponsorship of a student in a Master’s Program at Mississippi State University with aspirations leading to a career in aerospace – awarding scholarships is one of the key higher goals of the SE chapter.

In short, we are looking under every rock [asteroid, anybody?] for opportunities to interact at all levels on business and educational fronts!

Back to our day jobs …. we are all becoming and are having to become like VR camera arrays … taking in 360 degrees in 3 dimensions … actually 4 dimensions, looking forward in time too …. engaged in every aspect of our industry, Broadcast/OTT/Internet/VOD/Satellite/ Fiber, all driven by the consumer’s insatiable desire for entertainment, and information ….. don’t blink!

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2016: A New Direction in Space

By Betty Bonnardel, UK Chapter. SSPI’s UK Chapter is gaining momentum. On December 5, London was the venue for a Chapter meeting followed by the annual SSPI Awards Dinner, held at the prestigious One Whitehall which was extremely successful. The UK Chapter would like to extend its thanks to Lou Zacharilla, SSPI staff and the SSPI Board, represented by its President Bryan McGuirk. The event featured many highlights, including a speech by David Morris, Chair of the UK Parliamentary Space Committee and the presentation of the first Satellite Personality of the Year Award to Catherine Mealing-Jones of the UK Space Agency.

The UK Chapter, though new, has very definite direction. The UK has its own thriving space industry. It is home to some of the world’s most renowned satellite service providers, operators, manufacturers, excellent teleport facilities, and great space engineering talent.

UK teams have been involved in the development of some truly impressive space feats and perhaps the space industry in the UK doesn’t blow its own trumpet as much as it should.

Post-Brexit, this is an uncertain time for the UK as a whole, and it is vitally important that space is placed firmly at the top of the agenda. The UK is open for business – and that means space business. SSPI’s work in the UK is more important than ever as the UK pushes London as a great place to do business. It is a financial and insurance hub. It is vital that this message is to be reinforced through the work of the UK Chapter. The Chapter recognises the importance of inclusion of the whole space value chain and the many sectors of the industry within its Membership.

SSPI’s UK Chapter also looks to develop synergistic partnerships with other SSPI Chapters. This will be vitally important as the UK navigates its way through international trade. There is huge potential to work together to improve opportunities and open doors.

In addition, and in line with SSPI’s mandate to nurture the next generation of satellite talent, the UK Chapter welcomed UKSEDS (UK Students for the Exploration and Development of Space) to the Chapter meeting. SSPI is already collaborating with the organisation on a Satellite Design Competition. This kind of collaboration is essential to encourage new space talent in the UK and to develop a strong link between the older and younger generations of engineers and space industry specialists.

Next steps for the UK Chapter will include the development of a strategic plan to ensure two principal aims: to ensure that it is inclusive and to address member expectations. The Chapter is also highly focused on increasing its membership. Do you know of any UK-based satellite professionals? Spread the word about the UK Chapter and enable it to grow and strengthen through the knowledge and expertise of people from every facet of the UK space sector.

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2016: A Year Full of Promise SSPI received an astounding twenty great nominations for the Promise Awards this year. The winners were honored last month at the Future Leaders Dinner in New York City, which you can see highlights from on the next page! With so many strong nominees pouring in, we would like to share the story of each of these extraordinary young satellite professionals in this and future issues of The Orbiter.

Sandra Araujo

Company Architecture Manager, Elara Comunicaciones Sandra began her career as a project leader in IT methodology and development at FEMSA in October of 2014. In May of the next year, she joined Elara Comunicaciones where she quickly proved herself to be an excellent leader of high-performance teams. Sandra is highly-focused and works well under pressure. The teams she has led and collaborated with all speak of her as someone that makes the best decisions with impartial criteria, always looking for the fairest, most efficient, and most effective solution to any problem.

While at Elara, Sandra has transformed the company’s quality management system. She supported the implementation of an optimized planning structure complete with annual and quarterly meetings, an annual strategic plan, and initiatives with quarterly evaluation cycles.

Sandra currently leads Elara’s Improvement Committee, working to integrate the work of many teams and to guide operational improvement initiatives across multiple areas.

Kevin Cohen

Director, Emerging Markets, Space Technologies, ViaSat, Inc. Kevin began his career at ViaSat in June of 2008 as a New Product Introduction Engineer.

He has since risen through the company, becoming a Program Manager in 2012, a Manager of UAV Broadband ISR two years later, and finally reaching his current position as Director of Emerging Markets and Space Technologies in January of 2016. Kevin is described by his colleagues as a hard worker with great attention to detail and has received several spontaneous awards for his work at ViaSat. His work on ViaSat’s Production Readiness Review process has set a benchmark for success in the company in getting from the review process to transition to manufacturing with great efficiency and control.

While at ViaSat, Kevin led ArcLight waveform porting to the CBM-400 modem set, in effect launching the MBR-3020 product line. The MBR-4020 is now the backbone of ViaSat’s next generation hub architecture, serving multiple customers across the company’s government segment. Kevin is currently working on the growth of satellite communications in emerging markets. He is dedicated to strategy development, implementation and business development with a primary focus on Latin America.

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Join the SSPI Conversation!

Last month, we shared your answers to the question: What is your favorite thing about working in the satellite industry? This month, our members started a conversation of their own, led by Bill Bearnson on LinkedIn:

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Want to join the discussion? Connect with us on social media:

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Advertising Opportunities are available!

As you know, SSPI has transformed its monthly news vehicle, The Orbiter, into a beautiful, pageturning digital magazine you can read from your desktop, tablet or phone, or as a handy print-out to carry with you on travel trips. The Orbiter brings Society news, coverage of the Better Satellite World campaign, and the annual Workforce Study to more than 6,000 members and industry contacts.

Advertise With Us We invite companies to advertise in the new Orbiter. Full-page and half-page ads are available Some SSPI sponsorships include one or more ads with the sponsorship – but now you can purchase an ad directly! Download the media kit or email Tamara Bond-Williams for more information.

Copyright 2016 by the Society of Satellite Professionals International

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Photo for the Back, cover by CSIRO. Image used under Creative Commons license. Click here for license information.

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