Officials of Lockheed Martin's Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC) announced today that plans are underway to support an Advanced Space Communications Demonstration at the National Association of Broadcaster's Convention being held in Las Vegas, NV on April 23-26, 2001.

This demonstration, which is the first of its kind, will deliver High Definition Television (HDTV) content and advanced multimedia applications from a simulated International Space Station location to numerous sites across the continental United States in a real-time, seamless manner. To date, only NASA has the capability to provide these global services via geostationary Ku/Ka-Band satellites; NASA's assets will be used in the demonstration. The intent of the demonstration is to show that an application of NASA and commercial assets can be used in a powerful combination to address a new market -- HDTV from space and global HDTV broadcasting.

"This demonstration will prove that a fully commercial system can enhance NASA's communications infrastructure and enable high data rate communications to and from the Space Station," said Dan Heimerdinger, director of CSOC's Office of Commercialization. "Not only can NASA benefit from this state-of-the-art technology, but by opening up this capability to the private sector, we open up the marketplace for high demand K-Band applications, such as real time global HDTV broadcasts, which can be used in a virtually unlimited number of applications."

The offering of this technology to the commercial industry is in keeping with a CSOC initiative to help NASA defray costs and improve support to manned Shuttle and International Space Station missions through a variety of commercial architectures. Under the CSOC contract, Lockheed Martin is authorized to sell excess K-Band satellite capacity to commercial customers.

"This demonstration opens the door for potential commercial investment in the forthcoming communications architecture that will bring the International Space Station and scores of other locations to a computer and television near everyone in the world," said Martin Skudlarek, manager of Advanced Technology for CSOC. "Additionally, new partnerships will spring from this platform whose aspirations will be much less encumbered by technical constraints."

A web site providing additional information on this technology and the demonstration is located at http://www.csoconline.com/.

Private industry is partnering with Lockheed Martin and NASA in this initiative with over $3M of donated services and systems. Some of the organizations contributing to this demonstration include Ampex Data Systems, Bell Atlantic, Boeing Satellite Systems, Cisco Systems, Compaq Computer Corporation, Cobalt Digital, Cylink Corporation, Dreamtime Holdings, Harmonic Data Systems, K-Tech, Marconi Communications plc, Newtec America, Panasonic, US Naval Research Laboratory, Qwest Communications International Inc, Radyne-Comstream, and others.

CSOC is a $3-billion-plus contract awarded by NASA to Lockheed Martin, who serves as the prime contractor to provide end-to-end space operations and Mission and Data Services to both NASA and non-NASA customers. CSOC manages NASA's data collection, telemetry and communications operations that support Earth-orbiting satellites, planetary exploration, and human space flight activities. Services include data acquisition from spacecraft, data transmission to end-users, data processing and storage, ground and space communications, and mission control center operations.

Lockheed Martin Space Operations (LMSO) is a business unit of Lockheed Martin Technology Services headquartered in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. LMSO, a high-tech engineering and science services firm, employs about 4,000 engineers, scientists and support personnel. Services include System Engineering and Integration, software and hardware development for both government and commercial Customers; mission operations and planning systems design and human life sciences research.

SOURCE: Lockheed Martin