As part of an ongoing support contract to INMARSAT, Callisto provided manpower support to a LEOP being performed by Telespazio for the Apstar-7 satellite. Callisto provided support at the INMARSAT spacecraft control centre in London for the use of  two of the Inmarsat ground stations (Bejing,China and Lake Cowichan, Canada) and the Inmarsat communication network. The launch was successful and the injection was as predicted and the ground stations provided support up until the drift phase.

Due to an expansion of its business, Callisto is seeking to recruit and additional engineer for its engineering team based in our offices in France.  This team is engaged in studies related to satellite communications and in the development of specialised RF equipment for satellite ground stations.  The responsibilities of the selected candidate will typically include; undertaking research and studies in ground/satellite communications problems, developing system level designs of ground stations, definition and specification of antennas and RF circuits, simulation of communications channels, analysis of signal processing elements, preparation of engineering drawings, preparation of reports & documentation.

Callisto is pleased to announce that it has recently been awarded a new contract to provide a Multi-Band cryogenic Dewar for installation on a VLBI telescope located at Bundesamt fuer Kartographie und Geodaesie (BKG), Fundamentalstation, Wettzell. This contract is a continuation of a preceding collaboration with the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell (GOW) for building a new cryogenic Test Dewar.

Callisto is building a new cryogenic Test Dewar for the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell (GOW) of the Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie (BKG) in Germany. 

The Callisto Staff at Labastide d'Anjou are pleased to welcome Mario Fornaroli to their engineering team. Mario is a 26 year old electronic and telecommunications engineering graduate from University of Pavia, Italy, and had a first experience as researcher on "Processing of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Data" in University of Extremadura, Càceres ,Spain.

His first support for Callisto will concern the "Future Architecture for Deep Space Ground Station" study .The objective is to investigate solutions for building ground stations for future Deep Space missions for exploration of the outer reaches of the solar system.

Due to an expansion of its business, the Callisto Staff at Labastide d'Anjou is pleased to welcome Adrien Murtas as an electronics and technical support technician.

Adrien, who is 23 years old, graduated as Superior Technician in electronics (BTS)  and has already spent three months at Callisto as a trainee.  He will upgrade his qualifications over the coming year following a specific training program in order to take responsibility for the laboratory and for the maintenance of our equipment.

Adrien joints a team of five engineers at Labastide d'Anjou.

"For any space mission, the ground segment is vital for operating a spacecraft and processing data received from its instrument. Planck is no different, with hardware, software, telecommunication and other operations reaching from Spain to Australia" said Damien Texier, Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration , at ESAC, Spain.**

The first acquisition and tracking of signals from the Herschel and Planck satellites after launch, was achieved at New Norcia ground station using a new antenna control technique called Conscan.  A problem for finding a satellite in its first orbit after launch is that its trajectory is not known precisely.  The Conscan tracking technique allows to correct for uncertainties in trajectory by making the ground station antenna beam make small circles around the expected satellite path.  The tracked signal level is processed by "curvefit" software and the results obtained can be used to find the exact satellite trajectory. The Conscan routine has been integrated as a functional module into the Front End Controllers (FEC) at two ESA ground stations (New Norcia and Masplaomas). Callisto engineering staff at ESOC provide support for the development and testing of the FEC and have also participated in the design of the curvefit process and the implementation of the Conscan module.

*Launch and Early Orbit Phase                                **ESA Bulletin 139.

ESA uses cryogenic LNAs for its deep space telecommunications network  and has decided to upgrade the design of its X-Band cryogenic LNAs with new thermal and RF components to improve performance and long-term reliability.