Harris CapRock Chief Financial Officer Paul Rainey has left the company to join the executive team of satellite connectivity provider Global Eagle Entertainment.
Satellite communications network service provider SpeedCast of Hong Kong on Nov. 1 said it would purchase competitor Harris CapRock in an all-cash transaction valued at $425 million.
Harris Corp. has put its CapRock maritime satellite services division on the sales bloc after concluding that the business will drop another 25 percent. Globecomm is also said to be up for sale.
Harris CapRock has put together a new maritime service that company officials say will keep users connected by automatically switching them to the best available network, satellite or terrestrial, at any given location.
Harris has delivered the first flight payload for the Aireon aircraft navigation venture, which will use the Iridium Next satellite constellation to help airlines save money by flying more efficient routes.
NGA has been developing what it calls the “Map of the World,” an integrated collection of data, including geospatial data, from sources throughout the intelligence community.
Harris’ Network and Space Operations and Maintenance Contract is one of several being eyed for consolidation as the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center copes with shrinking budgets.
Harris has booked multiple hosted payloads to be flown on the Iridium Next constellation in addition to the main aircraft-tracking payload the company is building.
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Harris Government Communication Systems a contract modification worth $13.7 million for work on the service’s offensive and defensive counterspace ground systems.
Harris Caprock Communications landed a contract with DSME to provide a telecommunications solution including satellite connectivity for an oil-drilling platform to be located off the coast of Angola.
Harris CapRock will provide voice and data communications services via an unspecified two-satellite system operating in the C-band.
The cruise-line contracts position Harris in a high-growth commercial sector that contrasts with the sluggish growth in the company’s larger military business.
Tight budgets and a dearth of big new development projects are dominant industry themes these days, but there are still opportunities, especially for companies with low-cost ideas for augmenting existing capabilities. Harris Government Communications Systems, for example, has seen its space business grow at a 30 percent clip the past three years, and Bill Gattle says there are plenty of new opportunities in the pipeline.
Harris Corp. has assumed responsibility for marketing residual hosted payload capacity aboard Iridium Communications’ next-generation satellite constellation slated to begin launching in 2015.
Harris will study options for the ground system of a next-gen U.S. military weather satellite system.
Harris CapRock has won its first piece of business under the FCSA CS2 program.
