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a © thing on premises, it is undeniably true. "We take safety at sea very seriously," he said. Factor in, also that the LES pro- vides the communication links to Air

Force One and the space shuttles, and the magnitude of reliable service is clear. "I never want to get a call from

Kennedy Space Station and hear that a shuttle launch was aborted because of us."

While the station's five massive dishes (four active, one back-up) provide 95 percent of the station's visual impact from the outside, the guts of the opera- tion and the roughly $150 million worth of equipment housed in the technical shed is a real eye-opener. in addition to computerized and elec- tronic means — Morse Code as part of its warning system to alert staff engi- neers to problems.

Telenor's acquisition of Comsat fol- lowed an interesting period to Comsat, as less than a year previous it had been acquired — evidently, for quick resale — by Lockheed Martin. Despite an incredible number of corporate consoli- dations and takeovers in corporations around the world — some justified, some mystifying — this collaboration, by all appearances, will continue to be a rousing success. Before the acquisition, "Comsat and Telenor technical voices usually teamed and were always the loudest," at^Inmarsat meetings in

SatCom

London, said White. "Telenor is very clever," he said, noting how the compa- ny was a pioneer in integrating GSM cellular sites at sea so cellular phone users out of range can "roam" through the satellite. "We (Comsat) brought to the equation software knowledge and switching capability — we build things here off the shelf."

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A veritable smorgasbord of communi- cation technology from the "stone age"

Telex to the station's new No. 7 signal- ing switch — which handles the equiva- lent of 180 T1 lines — are housed here.

The new signaling equipment, White said, is proof of Telenor's commitment to reliable communication and the

Southbury Station. According to White, the new No. 7 switch, which takes full advantage of the latest technology to deliver expanded communication capac- ity in a condensed size, provides more flexibility, capability and is a move toward a "self-healing network" con- cept. Another major upgrade comple- ments of the new parent company is a brand new Uninteruptable Power

Supply (UPS), a major enhancement for the Southbury LES and a virtual guaran- tee that a power problem will not take the station offline.

With the high commitment to the latest communication and computing gear, it is ironic to note that the station uses —

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January, 2003 17