Hosted Payload Alliance Facilitates Successful Outreach on Capitol Hill
Deerfield, IL (PRWEB) July 11, 2014 -- The Hosted Payload Alliance (HPA) held an outreach event on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, June 24 to help familiarize members of congress and their staffers with the benefits of hosting government payloads on commercial satellites. Teams of HPA members held more than 40 meetings with 120 policymakers and their assistants.
“Our goal was to educate and raise awareness on Capitol Hill about the benefits and roadmap to hosting government payloads on commercial satellites,” said Aaron Lewis of HPA member Arianespace, who coordinated the Hill Day planning. “One of the primary points we brought into these meetings was that commercial hosting is not a technical revolution, but rather, a business revolution that is picking up momentum.”
Dave Anhalt, an HPA member with Iridium who assisted in the outreach planning, cited some primary reasons for the increased momentum in the adoption of hosted payloads. “Commercially leveraged solutions initiated five years ago at NASA and the Air Force have proven to be successful,” said Anhalt. “In addition, the 2010 National Space Policy encourages increased use of the commercial space sector. Officials in NASA and the Air Force are leading government efforts to find ways to purchase and use commercial space capabilities and services that meet government requirements.” Anhalt added that the pragmatic need for more affordable and resilient solutions is a forcing function to overcome cultural barriers and previous procurement preferences in order to leverage the diversity and capacity of the commercial space industry sector.
“The commercial space sector is poised to build on its success in providing systems with competitive cost and schedule to directly serve military and civil government customers,” said Janet Nickloy, HPA Chairperson from Harris Corporation. “Our only ‘ask’ during these meetings was to encourage Congress and committee staff members to seek inputs from federal departments and agencies regarding how to best overcome barriers for using America’s resilient commercial space enterprise to affordably host government capability on commercial platforms,” added James R. Jordan from Raytheon Corporation.
Nicole Robinson, HPA Vice Chairperson from SES Government Solutions added that the feedback from those with whom the teams met will be invaluable moving forward when undertaking future Hill Day events. “One committee staffer expressed that ‘We need to dispel the perception that hosted payloads are useful to the USG only for "nice-to-have" capabilities, and not for operationally required capabilities.’ You can bet we’ll double-down to ensure this perception is corrected.”
Myland Pride, an HPA member with Intelsat General led one of the teams for the event. He relayed that the members they met particularly appreciated how hosted payloads, “leverage significant commercial investments, provide lower cost alternatives for key space capabilities, and can provide resilience in a contested space domain. “Many resonated with the theme that in the cost-constrained and contested environment that we face, hosting payloads on commercial satellites makes sense.”
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About the Hosted Payload Alliance (HPA)
Established in 2011, HPA represents satellite operators, satellite manufacturers, system integrators and launch service providers, as well as other interested parties, and focuses on education, awareness and developing solutions to common challenges. For more information, visit http://www.hostedpayloadalliance.org.
HPA's Executive Members are: Airbus Group, Arianespace, Boeing, Harris Corporation, Inmarsat, Intelsat General Corporation, Iridium Communications Inc., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, SES Government Solutions, and SSL. HPA’s Associate Members are ATK Space Systems, COM DEV, Eutelsat America Corp, and Thales Alenia North America.
Meagan Comerford, Hosted Payload Alliance, +1 (847) 509-7990, [email protected]
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