XTAR, a joint venture between Loral Space and Communications and HISDESAT, announced that it has received a contract from the U.S. General Services Administration, Federal Acquisition Service for Information Technology Equipment, Software, and Services (FSC Group 70). The contract has an unlimited spending ceiling and may be used by any federal, state or local agency to acquire XTAR's high-powered X-band bandwidth and services.
Denis Curtin, chief operating officer of XTAR, hailed the GSA award as a significant milestone for XTAR. "This award will make it easier for military branches and government agencies to procure much needed bandwidth to meet warfighter communications needs, as well as for homeland and border security. We are very pleased that our proven high-performance X-band system has been awarded this important GSA schedule contract."
XTAR owns and operates XTAR-EUR, located at 29 degrees East longitude, and offers additional X-band capacity through XTAR-LANT, a payload on HISDESAT's SPAINSAT satellite located at 30 degrees West. These unique X-band satellites represent the emergence of a new commercial offering dedicated to government communications services.
The high-powered global, fixed and steerable beams on XTAR's two payloads provide essential, flexible, real-time X-band capacity with coverage anywhere from Denver east to Singapore. XTAR's satellites support the full range of military, diplomatic and security communications requirements, offering "on-the-move" capability for mobile command posts, security and disaster response and small ships and airborne relay sensor data.
