TWO GROUNDBREAKING DEMONSTRATIONS

USAF personnel participating in XTAR-EUR demo, Ramstein, Germany, June 2005

During the past quarter XTAR successfully completed the first of several planned demonstrations of its unique service, led by XTAR vice president of Programs & Operations, Cor Westerhoff.

The first demonstration was conducted in April with personnel from the U.S. Army's 7th Signal Brigade, 5th Signal Command in Mannheim, Germany. This demonstration resoundingly proved the compatibility of the XTAR-EUR satellite with existing, unmodified terminals. In fact the terminal used, a TSC-85C with an LHGXA 16 foot antenna, was manufactured on a 1979 contract and has been in operational use for 25 years.

After demonstrating the full limit of 8 Mbps on the existing equipment, the old modem was removed and replaced by a demonstration model manufactured by Advantech. This allowed the ground terminal to operate at much higher data rates and resulted in a peak capacity of 105 Mbps using only 40 Mhz of the 72 Mhz satellite transponder. The terminal was then connected to an 8-foot antenna through which it demonstrated a remarkable 75 Mbps performance.

The success in Mannheim was followed by a second demonstration held in late June with U.S. Air Force personnel from USAFE's 1st Combat Communications Squadron at the Ramstein Airbase in Germany. This demonstration was significantly more complicated and included multiple terminals operating in both Germany and England while being monitored by ground stations in Madrid and the Canary Islands.

At Ramstein XTAR demonstrated a number of network service capabilities, such as drawing services from an operational military network, the use of IP based communications and the remote control of network assets. In addition, a throughput of 150 Mbps was demonstrated using two simultaneous 75 Mbps carriers between two USC-60A terminals equipped with 2.4m antennas.

XTAR is planning on conducting additional demonstrations in the coming months to complete a cycle showcasing the unique capabilities of this innovative high power, wide-band, X-band communications satellite.

WE ARE XTAR

Cor Westerhoff

Meet Cor Westerhoff, Vice President for Programs and Operations, XTAR, LLC. Cor is a West Point grad, former Army Ranger and aviator who later served in the Army's avionics research and development laboratory, and was a member of the first cadre of personnel to work on the Strategic Defense Initiative program in 1985. Who better to help mastermind an innovative new system like XTAR?

Cor led the government programs at Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) in the mid-90s when he and a small corps of fellow engineers conceived the idea of a commercially owned and operated X-band system. Devoted to the U.S. and allied military forces, the system would fill a major shortfall of X-band capacity. From that initial concept it was a short matter before a partnership was identified with Spain that secured the orbital location at 29° east Longitude.

Upon the formation of XTAR, LLC Cor was officially named vice president, Programs and Operations. He subsequently oversaw the design, development, production and launch of XTAR-EUR, which officially entered service this April. Still under his management leadership, the XTAR-LANT payload residing on SPAINSAT is nearing completion at SS/L's state of the art Palo Alto facility in anticipation of a late 2005 launch on an Ariane 5 rocket.

In addition to his chief technology role, Cor is responsible for day-to-day XTAR system operations and maintenance, including terrestrial and space segments, payload operations and supporting customer requirements. He directed the recently completed XTAR-EUR throughput demonstrations with the U.S. Army and Air Force in Germany at Mannheim and Ramstein, respectively, and is actively involved in XTAR business and system follow-on planning.

Cor received a Masters Degree from the University of Southern California and graduated from the Army Command and General Staff College and the Defense Systems Management College.

FAST, FLEXIBLE X-BAND CAPACITY