Pending anticipated second-quarter 2014 FCC certification of a new “Sat-Fi” device, Globalstar Inc. plans to offer worldwide voice and data satellite-transmission services through traditional Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones, tablets and laptops in the hands of users outside of cellular range.

Engineers from two NASA field centers and the University of Texas have started subscale testing designed to ensure the acoustic loads generated by the planned heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) don’t damage the big rocket or its ground infrastructure during liftoff.

The Pentagon’s chief test official is recommending that the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) consider a redesign of its Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), the hit-to-kill mechanism used to down ballistic missiles mid-flight in the Ground-Based Missile Defense (GMD) System.

LOS ANGELES — Despite continuing cutbacks in U.S. military and space spending, Boeing’s position on flagship defense and space initiatives produced a strong 2013 for the company’s Defense, Space & Security sector and will continue to sustain it into 2014.

BRUSSELS — Arianespace Chairman and CEO Stephane Israel praised the European Commission for its loyalty in lofting EU satellites with the Evry, France-based launch consortium, but said the company must lower costs immediately to compete with new entrants to the market that are backed by government financing.

The human exploration of Mars by the 2030s is within reach if global space powers — supported by sustained budgets and political backing — cooperate to overcome the technical hurdles, according to Explore Mars, Inc. The four-year-old Massachusetts nonprofit advocates focused use of the International Space Station (ISS), the possible introduction of a modest, crewed cis-lunar outpost in the 2020s and carefully paced robotic missions to achieve the goal.

HOUSTON — Spacewalking cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy met with mixed results Jan. 27 during a second attempt to install a pair of Canadian commercial Earth imaging cameras outside the International Space Station (ISS). The task outside the Russian segment of the outpost proved so troublesome during a late-December attempt that the two men were forced to retrieve the just-installed imagers for internal troubleshooting during a frustrating excursion that grew to a Russian record 8 hr., 7 min.

APPLAUSE: The U.S. commercial satellite industry is cheering lawmakers and awaiting a congressionally mandated strategy this year that could help push the Pentagon toward multiyear leases and hosted payloads providing satcom services. The fiscal 2014 defense authorization act requires the Defense Department to provide Congress with an analysis of financial or other benefits of doing multiyear acquisitions.