The aim of this book is to give a clear and concise exposition of the principles and practice of satellite communications by describing the development of communications-satellite services. It will be useful both to engineers who have worked in other fields of telecommunication and to students.

This updated and extended new edition has been compiled from the course material of the highly successful IEE Vacation School of the same name. The vacation school was designed to give a broad introduction to the subject of satellite communications and provide the background knowledge and tools of the trade for those entering the field. The 3rd edition of the book continues this theme and up-to-date information on mobile and personal satellite constellations, navigation and positioning, and military and small satellite systems has been added, as well as a look to future Ka-band multimedia systems. We have also included updated ITU information and sections on history, organisation and the satellite business. The book differs from others on the subject in its pragmatic and engineering-oriented approach. The contributors are all current practitioners from industry or academics specialising in the field.

This book is a follow-up to the award-winning first edition and is written as a comprehensive guide for those who need to obtain a working knowledge of radiowave propagation on satellite-to-ground links at frequencies above 1 GHz and as a reference book for experts in the field. To accomplish this, expanded sections of explanatory text, copiously illustrated, enable an undergraduate or non-specialist to grasp the fundamentals involved. An extensive reference list permits the expert to go to the source material should the level of enquiry go beyond the level of this book.

Space Commerce relates the story of private enterprise’s unsteady rise to prominence as a major influence on world space policy and research. The first space race proved the technological and military prowess of the two superpowers; but since the 1970s that contest has been supplanted by a multinational struggle to command the commercial opportunities of space.

The commercial space age was born in 1965 when Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite, went into orbit. With characteristic ingenuity, American industrialists began to dream of garnering billions of dollars per year from space-based products and services. In the microgravity of space, they hoped, hitherto unavailable drugs could be produced that would revolutionize medicine; in the high vacuum of space, crystals of extreme purity could be grown in orbital laboratories, both for biological research and for application in the manufacture of advanced microcircuits.

John McLucas covers the broad sweep of space commerce, both the vision and the reality: the construction of communications satellites and their ground control stations; the sale and leasing of communications services; remote sensing and measurement of earth’s processes; navigation by satellites, serving ships, airplanes, and automobiles; the design and deployment of space laboratories for scientific research and product development; and life science experiments to determine the effects of space habitation on humans.

Drawing on his considerable expertise, McLucas brings a sober perspective to his assessment of the technological accomplishments as well as the challenges still faced by industry in space. He incorporates into his discussion an illuminating analysis of the economic and political impact of space commerce and its rapidly changing international character.

One of the most significant developments in telecommunications in the last decade, the very small aperture terminal (VSAT), as part of a satellite communications network, is the culmination of technology that allows earth terminals to be located on users' premises to provide data, voice and even video services. Networks based on VSATs can be established rapidly and reconfigured to respond to changing communications needs in a flexible and cost-effective manner.