This summer, I was surprised to learn from manotv, a Persian TV based in England, that Google has launched its first series of four O3b satellites from French Guiana on June 25, 2013! [1] I am puzzled why this has not got more publicity in the U.S. media or maybe it did and I missed it. O3b Satellite Constellations is another project of Google aiming to connect people all over the world, similar to Google Loon Project, especially those in remote areas who currently do not have broadband internet access. The first of these satellites was built in France and the remaining ones was assembled,integrated, and tested in Italy. O3b satellites will fly in a circular orbit, about 8000 kilometers above the Earth, in medium Earth Orbit. A quick search reveals that Google is an investor of O3b Networks, along with other companies, to enabling next generation high speed satellite networks.
This is the beginning of a new era making the space and computing technologies come full circle. It was the space industry that enabled high performance computing via commodity computing and invented some computers for aerospace missions, and now it is the computing industry benefiting from the space industry.
References:
[1] http://gigaom.com/2013/06/25/google-backed-o3b-successfully-launches-its-first-four-satellites-into-the-heavens/
[2] http://gigaom.com/2013/06/24/googles-other-plan-to-connect-the-unconnected-satellites/
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSSC-1
[4] http://spacejournal.ohio.edu/pdf/Dorband.pdf
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O3b_%28satellite%29
[6] http://www.o3bnetworks.com/
