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CONTENTS
Fulfilling the Promise
5 8
SSPI at 35: Developing the Talent that Sustains an Industry
10 11
Farewell to a Mentor and Friend – Dick Tauber
Obituary for Dick Tauber from SSPI Southeast
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The Tale of Michael Thompson
A Scale Model Communication Satellite
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Agenda for the Talent-First CEO
Observers urge prudence as race to provide LEO broadband rushes into overdrive
Better Satellite World is Our “Got Milk?” Campaign
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Lower Barriers to Entry in the Satcom Market, and What that Means for the Incumbents
Upcoming Events SSPI UK EVENT
Traditional Satellite Markets for Space Exploration, May 8, Helston, Cornwall, UK. Click here for more information. NETWORKING IN VIRGINIA
Global VSAT Forum Applied Innovation Conference 2018, May 10, McLean, VA, USA. Click here for more information. LIVE INTERVIEW
SSPI Making Leaders Interview: Mark Dankberg, May 15. Click here for more information. More Upcoming Events
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Fulfilling the Promise By Robert Bell, Executive Director It is an unusual kind of milestone. This year, SSPI ages out of a program that we created to honor the contributions of young space and satellite employees and entrepreneurs. Our age cut-off for the Promise Awards is age 35, and by the time we present our 2018 Awards in October, SSPI will be too old to qualify, having gotten its tipsy start in a bar in Denver, Colorado way back when. As the industry’s largest membership association, we reflect the industry we serve. As the industry matured, so have we. As the industry responds to the challenges of technology and market change, so are we. As just one example, our Future Leaders Dinner got its start in New York City in 2006 and has taken place there every year since. But in 2018, the Dinner moves to Silicon Valley, where we will produce it in partnership with the SatNews Satellite Innovation Symposium on October 9. The Dinner is where we honor winners of our Promise Awards, as well as a Mentor who has helped them advance, and a Silicon Valley venue offers a great chance to tap the entrepreneurial energy that is creating new opportunities and shake established franchises in our business.
What Are We Here For?
At its March 15 meeting, our chairman David Myers asked Board members to say in a few words why each of them had chosen to serve SSPI. The near-unanimous verdict: they believed strongly in our mission to attract, recognize and nurture talent. That is more than idealism at work: it is good business sense. McKinsey & Company has compared the growth of 700 companies with independent performance appraisals of their executives. The company found that leadership quality is critical to growth – but that most companies don’t have enough high-quality executives. Companies with a critical mass of executives who got excellent performance appraisals recorded superior growth consistently, both organically and through acquisitions. The more complex and fast-changing the business – and who could find a better description of the space and satellite industry? – the higher the skill level required for success. That is a gap we are working to fill. It is why we conduct online interviews about their careers with recognized leaders in our business, from Gwynne Shotwell of SpaceX to Mark Dankberg of Viasat. It is why we publish regular reports in our Making Leaders series about the fundamentals of talent attraction and management. They draw on the best talent managers in our business to identifies priorities and The Orbiter Fulfilling the Promise
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Fulfilling the Promise practices that companies of any size can pursue. It is why we stage research competitions for 3,000 students in the US, Canada and UK each year to open their eyes to the career opportunities in commercial space and satellite. And it is why, on October 9, we will once again honor remarkable young women and men at the Future Leaders Dinner – an event our guests call “inspiring” and “humbling,” which gives the careers of our award winners a big boost.
What Are You Here For?
We can only fulfill this mission with your help. We need you to take the time to nominate outstanding employees and entrepreneurs for a Promise Award, and to tell us about mentors who have changed your life. You will find a nomination form at www.satfuture.com. We need your company to sponsor this event, and to help fund our Making Leaders project and student attraction programs. Ask tbond-williams@sspi.org for more information. We need you to volunteer to become a Mentor to our student groups, sharing your time and experience in commercial space and satellite. See our Mentors page for more. The payoff is large in personal satisfaction and in recognition within our industry as a company building a stronger future. Through our communication programs, your company’s brand gets exposed more than a half million times over the course of a year in association with our work. It’s good value, to justify a decision to give value in return. 4
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Agenda for the TalentFirst CEO By Dominic Barton, Dennis Carey and Ram Charan A summary of a thought-provoking article in the McKinsey Quarterly newsletter, March 2018. For the full text of the article, visit McKinsey & Co and register for free access. In our combined 90 years of advising CEOs and their boards, the three of us have never come across a moment like this, when virtually every CEO we work with is asking the same daunting set of questions: Are my company’s talent practices still relevant? How can we recruit, deploy and develop people to deliver greater value to customers – and do so better than the competition? How can I be sure that I have the right approach to talent – and the right HR – to drive the changes we need to make? Meeting these challenges requires a distinct mind-set. Leaders at talent-driven companies are as focused on talent as they are on strategy and finance. They make talent considerations an integral part of every major strategic decision. They ensure that their own focus on talent is woven into the fabric of the entire company. And they are comfortable leading flattened organizations – often centered around the work of small, empowered teams - built to unleash the talent that will drive outsize value.
Lead with a G-3
The talent-driven organization needs a central brain trust, and all that we’ve seen argues for it being a “G-3” consisting of the CEO, CFO and the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO). This trio of executives ties talent to every item on the agenda. Consider the turnaround over the last few years at McGraw-Hill. In 2010, Wall Street was punishing then-CEO Terry McGraw’s company. McGraw relied on his new CHRO andCFO, John Berisford and Jack Callahan, to evaluate the company from their perspective as outsiders and tell him how to unlock value. Working together and meeting constantly, Berisford and Callahan discovered pockets where paternalistic practices had fostered bureaucracy at the expense of innovation. They also discovered that Wall Street was right – there were no real synergies between the divisions. With McGraw, they decided that the only way to unleash the talent within was to engineer a breakup – S&P as one company, education and media as another – and sell assets that didn’t fit. Berisford and Callahan led the exercise of splitting the company. Again and again, their respective experiences came together to deliver The Orbiter Fulfilling the Promise
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Agenda for the Talent-First CEO
unified solutions to tough problems. As the example suggests, CEOs in a G-3 will demand much of their CHRO, perhaps more than they ever have.
Align the board of directors
CEOs running a talent-first organization must help the board to see that talent is the value creator and therefore belongs at the top of its agenda. The talent-driven CEO wants the board to focus not just on total shareholder return (TSR) but on talent, strategy and risk (another kind of TSR). Most directors will welcome the shift. According to a recent McKinsey survey of corporate directors, most believe they are effective on strategy, yet very few feel they are doing a good job developing people and ensuring that the company has a strong, healthy culture.
Constantly develop your top talent
In almost every organization, success depends on a small core of people who deliver outside value. The success of the talent-first CEO largely depends on how he or she leverages this critical 2 percent of people. (That 2 percent figure is merely a guideline; in big corporations, the “2 percent” may be a group of fewer than 200 people.) Knowing where to look is important. According to one McKinsey study, about 70 percent of senior executives are wrong about who is most influential in heir organization. The G-3 must pinpoint the company’s crucial decision nodes, the places in the organization where important choices are made by people who can deliver tremendous value. The 2 percent is most definitely not limited to the group of employees with the fanciest titles. Instead, this high-leverage group can include key designers, scientists, salespeople, up-and-coming leaders, influencers, integrators and support staff tucked away in unglamorous corners of the company. For example, the navigation team at United Parcel Service created and manages software that encourages drivers to take as few left-hand turns as possible, which saves the company millions of dollars each year on gas. CEOs of talent-driven companies use every tool at their disposal to develop their critical 2 percent. When a company doesn’t have the skill sets or the innovation firepower it needs for the future, it is up to the CEO to go out and recruit people who can generate better ideas. The CEO must be sure that the company is constantly creating the next generation of leaders. 6
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Agenda for the Talent-First CEO
Unleash talent and strategy with agility
When CEOs of talent-driven companies launch new initiatives, they make sure to have the right talent on hand before going too deeply into strategic and financial planning. Agile organizations built around empowered teams are the best way to constantly and nimbly match the right talent to the right strategic initiatives. Priority initiatives are supported by a culture of autonomy and initiative. People find their way to projects that interest them. Some teams stay together for years, others disband after just a few weeks. The organization constantly reorganizes itself. Baier, the Chinese appliance manufacturer, has two thousand microenterprises that are the basic innovation units of the company. Each is composed of 10 to 20 people drawn from a range of functions. Each unit is ferociously focused on a set of customers who use its particular product. The units are empowered to find the solutions their customers need, as opposed to being tasked to sell them a particular product. The solutions created by these microenterprises drive Haier’s product strategy. Giving a talent so much power might seem daunting, but it’s hard to argue with the results: Haier is now the world’s largest appliance maker. Leading a talent-first organization is something that must be managed incrementally. The steps it requires – alignment at the to; continual development of talent; a commitment to link talent and strategy; an agile, flexible corporate structure – are each important. But built one upon another, they trigger a multiplier effect that can exponentially increase the value that talent delivers to the organization. And that, of course, is the great promise of leading a talent-first organization: seeing new ideas lead to even better new ideas, watching the creative thinking that’s been enabled amplify itself across divisions; and reaping the benefits of explosive value that arises from expected and unexpected parts of the company.
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SSPI at 35: Developing the Talent that Sustains an Industry By Tamara Bond-Williams, Membership Director Dear Members, By now, you’ve no doubt noticed that your association has been dramatically reshaping itself to adapt to the equally dramatic changes that the space and satellite industry has been going through for the past several years – changes that present both challenges and opportunities to an industry that is uniquely poised to make a Better Satellite World. A big part of the way we are helping the industry is by honing our mission to “make the industry one of the world’s best at attracting and nurturing the talent that powers innovation.” This begins with our traditional scholarship program. In their applications for scholarships, students tell us about their aspirations for careers in space and satellite and demonstrate academic excellence. Each year we select the best applicants to be honored with scholarship funds, but also a chance to meet the industry they hope one day to enter, through an invitation to the annual Satellite Show and the Hall of Fame Celebration. Scholarships can come from SSPI headquarters, or from our local chapters. This year, applications are due on May 15th, and students from their senior year in high school through post-graduate students are welcome to apply. Along with our traditional scholarship program, we host student competitions at leading universities in Canada, the UK and the United States. Through our student competitions, we engage brilliant and actively-engaged student members of the Students for the Exploration & Development of Space in explorations of some of the real-world challenges the industry seeks to address. The competitions have been forward-looking – covering such topics as space solar power and satellites around Mars, and every competition provides an opportunity for student teams to work with an industry mentor – a professional who has volunteered their time to support the teams as they compete to find a best-inclass solution to the yearly challenge. Which leads me to one of the most important – and 8
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SSPI at 35: Developing the Talent that Sustains an Industry
most unsung – aspects of talent development: mentorship. SSPI is actively working to ensure that our industry typifies a culture of mentorship. As mentioned, all student teams are paired with industry mentors – volunteers from across the industry who are willing to take the time to contribute their insight and guidance to the teams as they cultivate winning ideas. But our industry also has mentors who provide mentorship to others as they build careers. These mentors are beloved by the people whose lives they touched, and the impact they make is often invisible but indispensable, like our industry itself! One such mentor is Dick Tauber, who passed away this month, but who once said that, of all the awards he’d won, the SSPI Mentor of the Year Award (2008) was the one that meant the most to him. Godspeed ad astra, Dick! On April 30, SSPI began accepting nominations for those remarkable individuals who, like Dick, make mentorship a habit, seeking opportunities to share their knowledge and encourage the professional development and success of others. One mentor, along with 3 professionals and/or entrepreneurs age 35 or younger, will be honored at the Future Leaders Dinner – this year concurrent with Satellite Innovation 2018 – in Mountain View, California.
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SPEAKING OF DEVELOPING TALENT... Last month, SSPI released a research report: How to Recruit College and University Students, part of our Making Leaders series. In this 13-page report, written for anyone who is looking to improve talent acquisition, SSPI distills lessons from a group of leaders within our industry, who shared their insights in a series of interviews conducted over the past six months. These insights include why innovation leader SpaceX now does most of its hiring from colleges and universities. This report is free for SSPI members and available for purchase to others. Check it out below!
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The Tale of Michael Thompson You have probably never heard of Michael Thompson. But that is likely to change. This young man is a recent Purdue University aerospace engineering graduate currently working at Northrup Grumman on their space technical staff in systems analysis and simulation while he pursues graduate studies. He first came to SSPI’s attention as leader of a student team in our 2016 research competition, “Solving the Space Solar Power Puzzle.” This was the second of our annual research competitions produced in partnership with the US branch of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. The goal of the competitions is to engage students in no-cost research projects that prompt them to learn about commercial space and satellites – which they are rarely exposed to in their studies. Once they know about our $400 billion industry, they can stop thinking that their only job prospects are with NASA, ESA or JPL. Michael’s team won the top prize that year. You can read their report and see and interview with Michael and his team on our website. Then in 2017, Michael again lead a team that entered the SSPI-SEDS competition on “Connecting the Space Economy” and also won the top prize. Being a smart young man, Michael also applied for an SSPI scholarship to further his studies and was selected as a recipient. Go, Michael! So, it seemed only natural that when we started work on our 2018 competition, “Designing the Robotic Space Tug,” SEDS told us that one of their Board members would serve as our point of contact and organizer of the university teams. His name? You can look him up on LinkedIn. If there is one thing to be proud of when you choose to support SSPI, it is that you are changing lives. People like Michael Thompson will be successful with or without our help. But your support tips their career in the direction of an industry that needs their intelligence, drive and creativity more than ever before.
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A Scale Model Communication Satellite In 1987, Former Educational Chairman for the SSPI Rocky Mountain Chapter John Rossie founded the Aerospace Educational Development Program, a non-profit educational corporation in Colorado as a resource for astronomy and aerospace-related subjects. The corporation has recently released a scale model communication satellite, now available on its website. Check out the details below!
Scale Model Communication Satellite These easy-to-assemble, affordable, high quality models are for all ages. Great for educational and display purposes but still with the high quality detail required for professional and higher educational use. Hang them from the ceiling or set them on a desk. Use them at Trade Show display booths. This is the basic design of all 3-axis stabilized satellites ever built and that probably ever will be built. They are heavy-paper scale models printed on sturdy 10-point card stock and are die-punched so the pieces can be easily removed. A 23-inch long, 1/8" diameter wooden dowel is the only piece that is not included with the kit but is required for complete assembly of the satellite model. The kit results in a sturdy, three-dimensional replica of a 3-axis stabilized communication satellite with extended solar arrays. It measures approximately 24-inches long when completed. All models show dual C/Ku-band radio systems with appropriate sized antenna and feed horn assemblies. Scale is approximately 1/25 of actual.
AEDP
WHEREVER LIFE TAKES YOU, YOU’LL HAVE A PLACE AT SSPI We would like to offer you an opportunity to make sure that your membership in SSPI continues through the rest of your life. At the request of our members you can now be a part of SSPI and the industry through your career and into even your retirement. We invite you to become a Lifetime Member of SSPI. Lifetime Membership is new and allows you to remain part of the largest association, or society, for industry professionals in the world. Join or renew today and select the Lifetime Membership option (you may need to scroll to the bottom and select “See all plans”)
http://www.aerospaceed.org http://www.aerospaceed.org
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Farewell to a Mentor and Friend – Dick Tauber By Tamara Bond-Williams, Membership Director In the year that SSPI turned 35, we lost one of our earliest members: Mr. Richard (Dick) Tauber. He left this life on April 10, 2018. I had the privilege of working with Dick when we set out to establish a chapter in the state of Georgia. It was 2005, and I had been the membership director for 4 years – mostly in the background. I was now mandated, however, to take on this new challenge – get a chapter up and running in Georgia! According to everyone, the challenge would be best met by getting Dick Tauber on board. There’s a colorful story about HOW we Tamara Bond-Williams and Dick Tauber at a Southeast Chapter social got Dick to participate (ask me, sometime – it’s not printable), but suffice to say that once he was on board, he was as valuable a team player as he had been advertised to be. He was a constant encourager, an indefatigable champion who would make things happen. Chapter start-ups are hard. They take time, dedication, resources (or the will and ability to find them) creativity, and yes, a degree of brattiness. Dick was always asking for things for which he knew I’d have to say no, at least partly because there was always the chance I’d say yes. This was a hallmark of his career as an innovator – the ability to find resources, money, spectrum, solutions – where it had previously been assumed they couldn’t be found. The collaboration between Dick and I helped me mature in my role as the membership director. Indeed, I am sure that there’s a “before” and “after” picture to be taken: Membership Director Dick Tauber, the 2008 Mentor of the Year 12
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Farewell to a Mentor and Friend – Dick Tauber
before meeting Dick Tauber and Membership Director after. And over the years, his friendship and professional encouragement have been, for me and for so many others, one of the highlights of being in this industry. And so, I was thrilled beyond measure when, in 2008, Arnie Christianson and others submitted the winning nomination for Dick to be the SSPI Mentor of the Year. He was so deserving, and I was humbled deeply when he shared that of his many awards, he was most proud of this one. We will find our ways of honoring him, ways that go beyond words, ways that mirror the life he lived and the example he set. I hope that we all, in this 35th year of SSPI, consider the ways in which we reach out to, support, and mentor others, as part of our remembrance of a mentor and a friend.
Dick Tauber at the 2010 Industry Innovator Awards
Have a story to share about Dick Tauber? You can find this tribute and many others from SSPI members at https://www.sspi.org/groups/remembering-dick-tauber. Join the group to share your memories!
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Obituary for Dick Tauber from SSPI Southeast By Michael Greenwood. Sad news from Atlanta during NAB week, with the passing away of Southeast chapter founding member and industry titan, Dick Tauber, after a recent downturn in his health, and several weeks in hospital ICUs. It was in 2007 that Dick helped start the SSPI Southeast Chapter in Atlanta and he served as the first President of the Board of Directors, and also in nearly every role in the organization since. Dick was the core and driving force in our chapter, and did not take his foot off the gas pedal one bit even after he retired from CNN/Turner in 2013. His most recent role was as our VP of Programs, planning, coordinating, finessing and executing on countless programs across many varied subjects of interest and value to our chapter and also with joint sessions with our local SMPTE group too. It can be very easily argued that Dick’s career as part of the ground-breaking launch of CNN back in 1980 changed television and television news for ever here in the USA and by extension all around the world too. From Dick’s self penned bio, he modestly says he started in October, 1981 as “a satellite desk trainee”, but very quickly he became known as a supremely tenacious, and capable satellite expert, that would lead to a 32-year career at CNN and Turner. His last role from 2004 to 2013 was as the VP of Transmission Systems and New Technology for the CNN News Group. I quote next directly from Dick’s colleagues at CNN describing his impact and numerous accomplishments there: “When CNN received wide acclaim for being the only network to Broadcast live from Baghdad during the first Gulf War, it was his idea to marry the Baghdad to Amman and Amman to Atlanta four-wire audio circuits in Amman, allowing CNN its historic coverage and being the only U.S. television network to broadcast live as bombs fell. Dick also championed and pushed the network into new field transmission technologies and satellite transponder capacity. Along with others, he was instrumental in CNN with expanding the satellite truck fleet and acquisition and deployment of CNN’s fly-away uplinks. Dick loved his job and being an important part of CNN. He always wanted to make sure CNN was first with transmission from any spot on the planet. Dick 14
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Obituary for Dick Tauber from SSPI Southeast
secured his place as one of the people that helped build CNN from almost the start of CNN in the 1980’s into what it is today. Dick’s dedication to the industry included his long chairmanship of the World Broadcasters Union-International Satellite Operations Group (WBU-ISOG) that worked to communicate to the satellite industry the most important requirements of broadcasters and to collaborate on procedures that protected interference issues. He also represented TBS/CNN at the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) and was on the board of directors from 1998-2003. He won many industry awards spanning three decades, including the Outstanding Individual Achievement Emmy Award for Satellite Coordination for the Turner Broadcasting Systems GOODWILL GAMES from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1986, to a 2007 Science and Technology Emmy Award and IBC Judges Innovation Award, both for development and implementation of CNN’s revolutionary Digital Newsgathering transmission system. In 1991, Dick received an ‘Industry Visionary’ award from Communications Week magazine as one of the ‘25 Most Influential’ industry leaders for the year.” For myself, I only recently learned of Dick’s background in the theater, when he recounted the story of how he met his wife, and how he ran the lights for ‘Godspell’ on Broadway in NYC for a couple of years. His bio also shows his experience and commitment to education, the school system and especially with students and youth early in his working life. Dick was the Dean of Students and Director of Development at Darrow School in New Lebanon, New York. Educationally he holds a bachelor’s degree from Denison University in Granville, Ohio. He has also done graduate studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI and Columbia University in New York City. I think all of us in the SE chapter have our own unique stories to share showing Dick’s genuine concern and interest in our growth and development. The word ‘mentorship’ comes up time and again, and indeed he is a role model to most of us, defining what and how a mentor should be. Dick was always so generous with his time, for example in 1993 when I arrived in Atlanta, looking for my first job in America in satellites or broadcast, Dick spent half a day showing me around not just CNN, not just the teleport, but both, and the whole of the Turner Techwood campus as well. He was always great company, a great man and a true multi-dimensional human being, involved in the welfare of his teams, and leading us and spurring us on together towards worthwhile goals and achievements.
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Observers urge prudence as race to provide LEO broadband rushes into overdrive By Craig Barner, March 22, 2018 - Low Earth orbit constellations being planned to usher in a new era of connectivity continue to attract skepticism and urgings for caution, despite a burst of key developments since the start of the year as momentum builds. “My assessment of these business plans is that they’re overly optimistic,� Roger Rusch, president of satellite consultancy TelAstra told SatelliteFinance of the surge in interest in LEO broadband. The number of applications in the FCC for LEO constellation licences for broadband has gone up since last year, according to a spokesperson for the agency. Thirteen requests to FCC are pending. Last year, SatelliteFinance reported that the agency had 11 applications for this band. In June 2017, OneWeb announced regulatory approval for its 720-strong LEO network, but the company has said it is exploring the possibility of building another 2,000 satellites. The startup is building them in France and Florida.
SpaceX dominates the global launch market. (Source: NASA)
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Observers urge prudence as race to provide LEO broadband rushes into overdrive In addition, there are 10 additional applications with the FCC for V-band access, though the spokesperson cautioned that some of these do not necessarily entail separate constellations. Operators might be seeking multiple frequencies within the same constellation. All told, these plans point to at least 20,000 satellites, which was the number SatelliteFinance reported a year ago. For this report, the spokesperson did not know if that number has increased since last year. Currently there are about 400 to 500 commercial satellites with FCC licences in LEO.
Activity uptick
There have been at least seven notable developments in the LEO-based broadband constellation sector since the start of the year, with the most significant being the start of a new Greg Wyler-owned company, SOM1101. It is understood that satellite connectivity pioneer Wyler, who started OneWeb, has founded SOM1101. The company’s existence came to light in a Boeing (NYSE:BA) application to the FCC. The manufacturing giant has previously indicated its interest in building 3,000 satellites, and it is among the companies petitioning the FCC for access to both the Ka- and V-band frequencies. With the new request to the FCC, Boeing is seeking to transfer its applications for spectrum access to SOM1101. OneWeb and Boeing were unable to respond to messages seeking information about SOM1101, and the FCC spokesperson declined to speak about it. Also a major development, SpaceX in February launched two test satellites, Microsat2a and -2b, as part of its plan to create satellite-based internet service. Plans call for the Starlink constellation to comprise as many as 12,000 birds with service in the Ka- and V-bands. As part of a diversification plan, the Elon Musk company mostly known for launching Falcon rockets, plans to have around 40 million subscribers, generating operating profit of between US$15bn and US$20bn a year based on revenue of US$30bn annually, according to leaked internal documents cited by the Wall Street Journal. Details about two new LEO constellations for broadband service have also come into the light. Canada’s Telesat is planning a 120-satellite constellation in LEO partly in collaboration with Australia- and New Zealand-based operator Optus Satellite, as SatelliteFinance recently reported. Telesat’s goal is to provide fiber-like connectivity anywhere worldwide for business, government and individual users. A Telesat declined further comment. And venerable France-based operator Eutelsat (EPA:ETL) commissioned its first bird – named Eutelsat LEO for Objects (ELO) – for LEO from manufacturer Tyvak International, a subsidiary of US-based nanosat specialist Terran Orbital. A Eutelsat spokesperson told SatelliteFinance earlier this month that the 8kg ELO satellite is a step towards a “potential constellation”, adding it is too early to tell whether the operator plans a swarm in LEO.
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Observers urge prudence as race to provide LEO broadband rushes into overdrive Next, two more companies have received permission from the FCC to offer satellitebased internet service, state-owned Space Norway and Telesat, joining OneWeb in the stillexclusive club. Space Norway was unable to respond to a message. Though Space Norway and Telesat are not US companies, they must get assent from the FCC to operate Earth stations in the US as part of their service, the agency spokesperson said. Next, Israel-based NSLComm said during Satellite 2018 that it is closing in on a funding round in excess of US$6.25m to build three nanosatellites that will test its LEO broadband technology, as reported in SatelliteFinance. Finally, in a development for geostationary communications but with implications for LEO, US-based Astranis has announced US$18m in funding to build dozens of satellites for broadband access.
New space race These and other plans join SES (EPA:SESG), which is operating its MEO-oriented O3b Networks as the only other operator with hybrid satellite orbits.
SES’ capex will double in 2021 as its broadband constellation approaches launch. With SES and OneWeb as the only definite operators, “everyone else is struggling to catch up,” TMF Associates analyst Tim Farrar told SatelliteFinance. While a third company might become commercially viable, he believes it is a “stretch” that a fourth will make it.
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Observers urge prudence as race to provide LEO broadband rushes into overdrive These two have billions at their disposal to develop LEO constellations. Even as vaunted an organisation as SpaceX has not committed the same level of financial resources to its Starlink constellation, he notes. Though SES and OneWeb have the financial lead in the LEO broadband race, they still have a long way to go to achieve operational stability. Rusch suggests that they will need to dig up US$7bn-10bn to pay for their proposed networks. “It will cost three to five times what they have just to operate their networks,” he added. Among other things, they will need a substantial infrastructure – ground stations, user terminals, links between satellites, software – to ensure seamless connectivity for customers.
The models SES and OneWeb offer the model that other players might have to emulate to be successful, observers say. O3b is moving forward with plans to build its seven-satellite mPower constellation in part because it joined with SES, Farrar said. OneWeb received an initial investment from Intelsat (NYSE:I), US$1.5bn in financing from Japan-based SoftBank (TYO:9984) and is partnering with Airbus (EPA:AIR) on the construction of the satellites. “Some of the conceptual work can be done for the tens of millions, but to advance to the point of construction where you are bending metal, you need hundreds of millions,” he added. And, starry-eyed satellite operators might find their biggest allies among terrestrial service providers, Farrar added. Cellular backhaul service via satellite is a US$500m market, but it would need to reach “a couple billion [in dollars]”. “That’ll be enough for O3b and OneWeb to break even,” he added. Financing for satellite needs to mature so that there are more fixed-price contracts between suppliers, especially manufacturers of antennas and user terminals, and operators, Rusch said. LEO communications currently require expensive steerable antennas to pinpoint the transmission of data, rather than GEO satellites’ wide beams, which are powerful but also transmit to unpopulated areas where satellite service is not needed. Venture capital providers ultimately provide only seed money, he continued. Ideally, operators need bank loans supported by the guaranteed debt of export credit agencies, but “ECAs don’t back this type of thing yet”. Meanwhile, the US Export-Import Bank languishes in political limbo, while ECAs in Canada, France and China plow ahead with other sizeable satellite contracts. “I suspect that there will be a lot of investors who will lose money [on LEO broadband constellations]”, he said. “I don’t see how anyone will get ahead except promoters like Elon Musk.”
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Observers urge prudence as race to provide LEO broadband rushes into overdrive History class Proponents of this argument point to satellite and telecoms history to prove their point. Though a well-known story, it is worth remembering that Motorola in the 1990s proposed a US$12.9bn global satellite constellation to be called Celestri that would have provided internet services. Later it dropped the plan, opting for a stake in rival Teledesic, which planned an 840-bird constellation. That company later failed. As many as eight to 10 constellations were being proposed in the 1990s and 2000s to provide voice service via LEO constellations, with only Globalstar (NYSE MKT:GSAT) and Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) hanging on – and just barely. Each filed for bankruptcy protection during its history. The remaining players fell by the wayside. Even the dotcom bubble in the 1990s serves as a cautionary tale. “A lot of clever people came up with some good ideas,” Rusch said. “Today what’s going on in internet satellite is similar.” He added: “I can only tell you that it feeds on itself.” That does not mean planning for LEO broadband constellations is a wasted endeavor, as consolidation is a possible outcome. In 2009 Fleet operator ViaSat (NASDAQ:VSAT) acquired broadband provider WildBlue Communications for US$568m in cash and stock. And EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS)-owned Hughes Network Services took over broadbandoriented Spaceway. Indeed, there is plenty of reason for optimism, Farrar said. Major players are willing to put hundreds of millions of dollars into development, a “huge advantage” for the industry at large, he noted. Iridium and Globalstar created “enormous benefits” for consumers, government and military when they were developing their LEO constellations. “We should be optimistic on that basis, that some of these systems will get built,” he said. “Profitability remains to be seen,” he added. SatelliteFinance, an SSPI media partner, is one of the most respected business journals in the industry and a trusted source for intelligence on complex transactions in the private and public equity and debt capital markets, M&A, regulatory and legal developments, and changes in corporate strategy. Click here to learn more. This article originally appeared at https://www.satellitefinance.com/insights/observersurge-prudence-race-provide-leo-broadband-rushes-overdrive.
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The Orbiter Fulfilling the Promise
Better Satellite World is Our “Got Milk?” Campaign By Louis Zacharilla, Director of Development Our industry must write a thank you card and distribute it via satellite to the 9.4 million dairy cows in the United States. They may not have realized it in 2015, but while they were chewing their cud, they were enabling the satellite industry to tell its story. Let me milk this further: After nearly 35 years of bringing professionals and students together from every corner of the satellite community – and from every industry that satellites touch – SSPI decided it was time to change the narrative of how we were viewed as an industry. We were not just some technical cult that built machines which spied on people. We were a technology and an industry that made the world better every hour of the day and in hundreds of ways. I worked with my team in New York to craft a message and design a campaign that would change the narrative and tell the REAL story of this industry. Where did I find the inspiration? In two places. From a cow and from a kid. Also, from a guy named Jeff Goodby. In 1993, Goodby was a copywriter for an ad agency (as I had been early in my career), who wrote a campaign for the California Milk Processor Board titled: “Got Milk?” The campaign took a boring product (milk) and gave it a famous boost. Most Americans remember this campaign fondly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PAj5X4oYro We had a great product too. And it also seemed boring to outsiders, the business media and even among potential customers and regulators, where misperceptions were apparent. Even those of us inside the industry didn’t realize how great we were, and in fact, our morale needed a boost. Once we started doing our research, amazing stories began to come to us. Satellites saved lives, broke up modern-day slave rings, helped eradicate Polio, made farming more efficient and helped monitor our oceans, forecast our weather and land our airplanes. And much more. We produced our “Got Satellite?” campaign and called it “Better Satellite World.” That inspiration came from its now iconic logo and image, modified Hannah Smith’s drawing was the inspiration from a drawing by a 12-year old artist, Hannah Smith. behind the industry’s iconic BSW logo Hannah, whose parents work for Space Systems Loral, drew it as part of an effort by SSL to make sure kids knew what their parents did. I found it after it had been chosen for the company’s annual holiday calendar, which Wendy Lewis sent to me each year. (Thank you, Wendy!) The Orbiter Fulfilling the Promise
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Better Satellite World is Our “Got Milk?” Campaign
We immediately knew it would work. Since this happy illustration appeared and the “Better Satellite World” campaign and website were launched (www.bettersatelliteworld. com), both have done their job. In 2017, we produced another 10 new stories and videos. The videos were sponsored, and these sponsorships have become a material source of revenue for SSPI. Each sponsor received, on average, 45,000 gross impressions. Since we launched the campaign in Q4 2015, BSW stories in the various industry trade publications with whom we have content deals have generated 3.8 million gross impressions worth US$435,000 in advertising value. Talk about a great guerilla campaign! Equally important, the Better Satellite World campaign has spawned an important new industry franchise, the Better Satellite World Awards and Dinner in London, which for the past three years have identified and awarded people and events that have certainly made the world better. These include Digital Globe’s support of the Associated Press, which identified a slavery ring in the Pacific Ocean, and Eutelsat, for their ongoing support to stimulate interest for careers in satellite throughout Africa via their DStv Star Awards. We thank the law firm Milbank and our UK Mark Dankberg is inducted into the Hall of chapter leadership for their support in getting this off Fame in Washington (2016) with the logo in the ground and allowing us to make London its home. the background Working in conjunction with our Isle of Man chapter, the dinner has become a go-to event each December. Nearly 30% of SSPI revenue now comes from this campaign. It will continue to rise because the campaign is increasing its visibility and the videos are shown at conferences and used by schools, companies and others to show the world how “better” we are. You can use it too. The campaign was used to support the WRC battle for spectrum and later this year will spawn another media product, “The Better Satellite World” podcast series, which I look forward to hosting. What’s next? We are attempting to raise one million dollars for the campaign, which we need to move it to the next phase. Ad agency Ogilvy has offered to work with SSPI because it too believes in the campaign and sees it for what it is: a new way to tell a story which, after 35 years, is moving to its next chapter! I am happy to tell you more about our plans. Thanks for your support. And thank you, cows!
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The Orbiter Fulfilling the Promise
Lower Barriers to Entry in the Satcom Market, and What that Means for the Incumbents By Blaine Curcio, April 24, 2018 - For a moment, let me take you back to the satellite telecommunications industry in 2008. Times were splendid. Satellite operators could count on sky-high Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) margins and stable cash flows due to a deep, wide moat around the industry. Satellite benefitted from very high barriers to entry, brought about by: • Customers primarily being Direct-to-Home (DTH) platforms, and primarily signing very long-term (more than 10 year) contracts with satellite operators that they viewed as partners; • Growth was coming from video, which itself adds an extra barrier to entry by virtue of it being very expensive to re-point millions of satellite dishes toward a different orbital slot; • Satellites themselves were very expensive, and the total throughput on a given satellite tended to be relatively small. This meant that most operators wanted/ needed multiple satellites, and that it was hard to enter the market with just one. Indeed, 2008 was a good time to be a satellite operator. Fast forward to today, the industry is undergoing a period of rapid change, including an erosion of the high barriers to entry that satcom has seen historically. This erosion is being caused by several factors, all of which are set to accelerate, with the next several years being a golden era for new entrants into the industry. While this will lead to lots of new capacity and a slew of market share fluctuations, the longer-term implications are less certain. What will bring about so many new entrants, and how might this play out? First, why so many new entrants? Several factors are converging today that lower the barriers to entry. Like what you’ve read so far? Check out the full article at https://www.satellitetoday. com/business/2018/04/24/lower-barriers-to-entry-in-the-satcom-market-and-what-thatmeans-for-the-incumbents/ For over 30 years, Via Satellite, an SSPI media partner, has provided essential news and expert business analysis on the global commercial communications satellite industry, including current and evolving applications, infrastructure issues, technology, and business and regulatory developments around the world. Click here to learn more. The Orbiter Fulfilling the Promise
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More Upcoming Events SSPI MID ATLANTIC EVENT
Seventh Annual Golf Outing benefiting the SSPI-MA Scholarship Fund, May 31, Reston, VA, USA. Click here for more information. SSPI ROCKY MOUNTAIN EVENT
Colorado Rockies Baseball Night with SSPI, June 1, Denver, CO, USA. Click here for more information. Learn more about upcoming events at www.SSPI.org
Advertising Opportunities are available! As you know, SSPI has transformed its news vehicle, The Orbiter, into a beautiful, page-turning 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 SSPI news, coverage of the Better Satellite World campaign, and new research reports 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 2018 by the Space & Satellite Professionals International
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Cover photo by NASA/Jamie Atkins. Used under creative commons license.
The Orbiter Fulfilling the Promise