space news26/5/2008

SPACEMARTIntegral's EPOCH IPS Supports Merger Of Telesat And Loral Skynet Fleet Operation
Telesat largely attributes the success of the project to the expertise and effort of the Telesat Ottawa and Hawley operations teams, and the ability to leverage the flight proven EPOCH IPS system that was operational in Hawley.by Staff WritersLanham MD (SPX) May 26, 2008Integral Systems has announced that is has completed the initial phase of a contract with Telesat to support the Telesat activities associated with integrating the Loral Skynet and Telesat Canada satellite fleet operations under Telesat.
The operations for the Loral Skynet satellite fleet, consisting of three Telstar satellites owned by Loral Skynet and an additional six 3rd party satellites, have been transferred from the Hawley, Pennsylvania facility to the Ottawa, Ontario facility.
The combined Telesat satellite fleet operated from Ottawa now consists of 25 satellites, 11 satellites operated for Telesat and 14 satellites operated for other parties, making Telesat the 4th largest commercial fixed satellite services provider in the world.
The timeline for this integration project was greatly compressed due to delays that were encountered in receiving the required approvals to close the purchase of Telesat Canada by Loral Space and Communications, Inc. and Public Sector Pension Investment Board.
Integral was able to support Telesat personnel in installation and configuration of the EPOCH IPS in Canada as part of the transfer of existing satellite operations from the Skynet facilities shortly after the contract was awarded.
In less than a month, Telesat was successfully performing shadow operations for the majority of the Loral Skynet satellite fleet and transfer of full operations from Hawley to Ottawa was completed on schedule.
"Loral Skynet was one of Integral's first commercial customers and we have had a very good relationship with them for over 10 years and we are pleased to be able to continue that relationship with the new Telesat supporting their combined satellite fleet needs," said James Kramer, Director of Command and Control Systems in the Commercial Division at Integral Systems.
"The ease with which Telesat has been able to come up to speed on the EPOCH IPS system and integrate with their existing systems is a testament to both the skill of the Telesat personnel as well as to ease of use and operability of the EPOCH IPS."
Telesat largely attributes the success of the project to the expertise and effort of the Telesat Ottawa and Hawley operations teams, and the ability to leverage the flight proven EPOCH IPS system that was operational in Hawley.
With the support of Integral, Telesat has been able to implement a new system in the Ottawa Control Centre that utilizes the operationally tested capabilities and products used by Skynet thus minimizing the setup and validation time required.
"At the beginning of this project we had an aggressive goal to complete the integration of the nine Loral Skynet satellites within nine months of the closure of the Telesat sale," said David Wendling, Vice President Space System Department at Telesat.
"Despite the fact that the Telesat transaction closed four months later than anticipated, we were able to transition the operations of the Skynet fleet to Ottawa in late March as originally scheduled. The flexibility and capability of the EPOCH IPS system and the excellent support from ISI were key factors in the successful completion of the operations integration in record time."