Space Products & Innovation

Travel, Lifestyle, and Entertainment


Olympic Swimgear Redefined

Perhaps the highest visibility for a space technology spinoff in 2008 was the migration of technology used for space shuttle drag research into the design of the low-friction swimwear worn by a number of Olympic competitors, including multiple gold medalwinner Michael Phelps.

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Virgin’s WhiteKnightTwo Flies Successfully

During 2008, Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic unveiled and conducted the maiden flight of a new airplane, WhiteKnightTwo, a “mother ship” designed to carry SpaceShipTwo into the upper atmosphere, launch the spacecraft into a suborbital trajectory, and return to base. SpaceShipTwo has room for six passengers and two pilots.

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The Convergence of “G” Phones and GPS

Smartphones are advanced mobile phones with features similar to personal computers. Devices released in 2008 such as the Apple iPhone 3G and the T-Mobile G1 put the power of space products and services into pockets everywhere.

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Satellite Entertainment Offerings Grow

In 2008, ICO Global Communications began testing a mobile TV service using a satellite over the United States designed to deliver up to 15 television channels for entertainment starting in 2010. ICO also plans to offer navigation and emergency services and is experimenting with delivering Internet service to cars.

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Record Where You’ve Been

GPS receivers are being integrated into mapping and camera equipment. “Geotagging,” a complementary application for digital photography, records coordinates from a GPS receiver in the metadata of photographs.

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The Mobile Phone That Switches Between Satellites and Cell Towers

Inmarsat, a provider of mobile satellite services, released the IsatPhone in summer 2007, a handheld voice and data phone that overcomes some of the disadvantages of traditional satellite phones, such as the lack of coverage indoors and in urban canyons, by its ability to communicate via standard cell phone networks.

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Satellite TV in a Suitcase

DIRECTV, one of two major direct-to-home (DTH) providers serving North America, unveiled a portable satellite TV in January 2007. The portable TV unit houses a 17-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) screen in a carrying case that resembles a briefcase. An antenna, rather than a dish, receives signals from DIRECTV’s satellites.

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Growth in Direct-to-home Market

Satellite signals also carry television content, directly and indirectly, to viewers. Companies, such as DIRECTV, broadcast television stations to more than 27 million household subscribers, who use small satellite dishes to access the television content directly.

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