On November 23rd, 2009 Intelsat 14 launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, complete with a payload demonstrating Internet Routing in Space (IRIS) for the U.S. military. IRIS is the first dedicated  U.S. military payload to reach orbit on a commercial satellite. RKF performed an initial engineering and integration assessment study (EIA) for IRIS to provide an in-orbit demonstration of the feasibility of a space-based Internet Protocol (IP) routing communications system. RKF also provided system engineering expertise for the IRIS project to both the DoD and Cisco Systems as well as providing the payload systems engineering for the project.  Additional RKF responsibilities for the IRIS project included  feasibility analysis, system design, supplier interface, system integration, SWAP assessment, link & coverage analysis, air interface definition, design tradeoffs and roadmaps. A joint press release from Intelsat and Cisco Systems detailing the launch of Intelsat 14 and the IRIS payload can be found at: Internet Routing Blasts Into Space.

Mobile communications provider TerreStar Networks Inc. (TerreStar), a majority-owned subsidiary of TerreStar Corporation (NASDAQ:TSTR), announced on August 27th, 2009 from Reston, VA the successful completion of in-orbit testing (IOT) for TerreStar-1, the world's largest, most advanced commercial communications satellite. This successful IOT came in short order after the successful launch of TerreStar-1 on July 1st, 2009 and the first successfully completed phone call over TerreStar-1 using TerreStar handsets on July 20th, 2009. Details concerning the successful IOT and launch of TerreStar-1 can be found at: TerreStar Announces Successful Completion of Satellite In-Orbit Testing and TerreStar Successfully Launches World's Largest, Most Powerful Commercial Communications Satellite.

Washington, DC - November 20, 2009 - RKF Engineering Solutions, LLC today passed the Critical Design Review for Version 1.6 of its Global Resource Manager (GRM) software. The Global Resource Manager (GRM) optimizes spectrum, beam, power levels, coverage and other resources for next generation mobile satellite systems. The GRM establishes resource plans which coordinate between satellite and terrestrial networks to allow for spectrum sharing and the determination of operational rules for satellite base stations. Additionally, the GRM optimizes beam coefficients to achieve desired regional and spot beam shapes. Requirements may be assigned to beams individually or may be assigned to a group of beams within a specified region. Numerous other constraints can be built directly into the GRM, such as frequency and power sharing with ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) stations as well as specific Federal Communication Commission (FCC), International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and satellite limits. As such, the GRM provides a complete solution for generating resource plans for Mobile Satellite Service (MSS).

The GRM was developed for the Terrestar satellite and terrestrial 4G mobile telecommunication network program and operates in their Network Control Center (NCC). The Terrestar satellite has a ground based active beamformer that generate over five hundred beams across North America. The GRM optimizes power, frequency and coverage plans as well as beam shapes that intelligently suppress sidelobes in order to maximize capacity while meeting interference constraints to legacy ground based fixed service stations.

Version 1.6 of the GRM represents an advance over Version 1.5. New in Version 1.6:

• Ability to receive usage statistics from satellite base-station subsystems and display this information in a user-friendly GUI environment
• Mapping Table to compute input drive levels on satellite amplifiers
• Enhance Beam-Plan Analysis and Beam Layout Improvement Recommendations