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Goonhilly – Yesterday, Today + Tomorrow

November 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment
November 2011 SatMagazine Cover

SatMagazine Cover November 2011

Having been involved one way and another with the Goonhilly satellite earth station for some 35 years, imagine my delight at being asked by Satnews Publishers to write an Insight Feature about it for their monthly SatMagazine. I viewed this as a real honour, since Satnews Publishers is a long-established and arguably the market-leading source of news and in-depth articles about space and the satellite communications industry.

The timescale was very tight and over a weekend, but so what. The only problem was that I needed to gather and verify all sorts of facts, and that meant ruining the weekend of a few colleagues in the UK. They were brilliant and went out of their way to help me. I disturbed one person at 9:00pm UK time on the Saturday night while he was out with his family at the Blackpool Illuminations.
He was good about it but I don’t think his wife will ever speak to me again!

To view the Insight Feature at SatMagazine click here:

“Goonhilly – Yesterday, Today + Tomorrow”

If, after reading the Feature, any of you are interested in the details [Read more…]

Filed Under: Books, Earth Stations, Organisations

Watch Dramatic NASA NPP Launch

October 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Prior to presenting the launch video itself, the following video link gives a real, behind the scenes look at the launcher integration and final launch preparations. Viewing this 6 minute video will put the launch itself into perspective => NPP Launch Preparations

Right, the “quick” version of the launch itself:

NASA’s National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) spacecraft was launched aboard a Delta II rocket at 5:48 a.m. EDT today, on a mission to measure both global climate changes and key weather variables. Just watch the above live NASA video of today’s NPP launch from Vandenberg.

For those who want to watch more of the launch, including the 2nd Stage 1st burn (for me the most interesting) then watch this 16 minute video => More of the NPP Launch. Just watch the telemetry data, listen to the commentary and see the vehicle exceed 17,000mph!

Now here’s a coincidence. It’s only a few hours ago that I published [Read more…]

Filed Under: Earth Observation Satellites, Launch Sites, Launch Vehicles, Organisations

Help Save Goonhilly Earth Station Complex

October 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Photo courtesy of and copyright Ian Jones, 2011

Goonhilly 3 Antenna and the Orion Constellation

Everybody’s heard of Goonhilly, haven’t they? No? I’m amazed, so here’s the story of a piece of UK National and technological heritage and why it desperately needs your support right now.

There’s an urgent petition to the UK Government which needs to be considered and, if agreed with, then signed by all people who do not want to see yet another piece of national heritage callously discarded by short-term-interest politicians and NMP (not my problem) bureaucrats.
If I sound cynical, just look at what the last Government did with the Foreign Office Library. They scrapped it! Apparently, you can now find original, ancient treaties etc of the British Empire for sale on EBay!!!

The petition site is at http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/goonhilly

Goonhilly Downs – a windswept, out-of-the-way location on the Lizard peninsular by the Atlantic Ocean in south west Cornwall, England became a dramatic focal point at the dawn of the satellite communications era. Why, you might ask? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Countries, Earth Station Locations, Earth Stations, Organisations, Telecommunications

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