Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC
Comsat Laboratories has won a $3.5 million contract to provide communications networking services for Sky Station International's planned fleet of 250 giant helium-filled blimps. The craft will be stationed 70,000ft (21,350m) above the world's major metropolitan regions and developing nations to relay Internet, video and other high-speed data services around the earth.
Under the two-year contract, Comsat joins Sky Station's team as communications system integrator responsible for developing specifications for overall communications, equipment used onboard the geostationary unmanned airborne platforms and gateway earth stations and user terminals. The Stratospheric Telecommunications Service will operate above commercial airspace.
Solar and fuel cells will provide power for propulsion and payload requirements for the lighter-than-air platform's operating life of between five and 10 years. The 150m-long helium-filled blimps will use lightweight propellers powered by electric motors to maintain their position against the prevailing winds.
Other members of the industrial team include Aerospatiale of France as prime contractor for the platforms; France's Thomson-CSF as earth station manufacturer; Alenia of Italy as primary payload developer; and Germany's Daimler-Benz Aerospace, which is supplying subsystems. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be the system integrator.
Last year, radio frequencies were reserved for use by the high-altitude platforms. Sky Station plans to deploy the blimps from 2001.
Source: Flight International