The May 2009 COMARA Newsletter is a PDF file. A number of the articles in this email have been truncated.
Visit http://www.comara.org/sent/newslettermay2009.pdf to read the full newsletter.

COMARA Newsletter - May 2009

The quarterly newsletters are mailed only to members without a working email address in our database. If you have an email address, please send it to webmaster@comara.org so we can send you all of the newsletters as they are prepared.

Dues, Dues, Dues

You can check your status at any time by visiting the COMARA web page at http://www.comara.org . After you sign in, your dues status is displayed at the top of the page. 2009 dues are $10. Make checks payable to COMARA, put "Dues" on the memo line, and send to COMARA, PO Box 34594, Bethesda, MD 20827

Events

Social and Annual Meeting Sept. 20, 2009 -
 The 2009 COMARA Reunion and Annual meeting has been scheduled for late afternoon on Sunday, September 20, 2009. The 2009 events will be held at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel between the Tysons 1 and Tysons Galleria shopping centers. This hotel is less than half a mile off the Beltway. Joe Pelton, with some advice from Denis Curtin has managed to negotiate a great deal for our next social. The menu will include three selections plus free soft drinks. A cash bar will be available. Please SAVE the date.

National Philharmonic Orchestra Concert at Strathmore - Saturday, March 20, 2010. -
Each season COMSAT organizes a group to attend one of the National Philharmonic Orchestra's outstanding concerts at Strathmore. Earlier this year 60 people attended a concert in February featuring world-renowned guitarist Manuel Barrueco. 2010 COMARA Philharmonic Orchestra Plans: COMARA has requested that the Orchestra "book us" for the All-Brahms concert on Saturday, March 20, 2010. The program includes

BRAHMS Hungarian Dance No. 5
BRAHMS Violin Concerto, with Chee-Yun as soloist
BRAHMS Symphony No. 2

National Philharmonic Orchestra - Background: We want to develop a close relationship with the National Philharmonic Orchestra, in whose development a number of COMSAT stalwarts such as Bill and Ruth Berman, Bob Schwartz, Jerry Breslow, Joel Alper and Bill English, have played major roles over the years. To join the National Philharmonic for its 2009-2010 season, please visit www.nationalphilharmonic.org for more information or to download a season brochure.

Jeff Binckes Piano Recital - MAY 18th, 2009 Jeff Binckes will present a lecture-piano recital at the Kreeger Auditorium at the Jewish Community Center, Montrose and Executive Blvd, about two blocks west of Rockville Pike, on Monday afternoon, MAY 18th, 2009, from 1:40 to 2:30 pm .The program is entitled: Rachmaninoff: Light and Dark. This program will feature contrasting styles of some of Rachmaninoff's famous and not so famous piano preludes. The Kreeger auditorium will be open at 1:30 pm.

COMARA Board Election

It will soon be time once again to elect three members of the 9-member COMARA Board of Directors, each for a 3-year term. If you know of someone who would make a good candidate for service on the Board, please obtain his or her consent to stand for election; write a very short "background" note on the candidate, focused largely on service while at COMSAT; and send to webmaster@comara.org no later than Friday, August 14.

Permanent Hall of Fame for Satellite Communications

COMARA, the Intelsat Retirement Association (IRA), the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI). the Satellite Users Regulatory Group (SURG), and a number of satellite industries are supporting the effort to create a Permanent Satellite Hall of Fame and Museum, and progress continues to be made. Options under study include the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama; the National Electronics Museum very near Conference and Hotel facilities at BWI; and a possible new facility at the Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Joe Pelton, Steve Teller were among the delegation that visited the National Electronics Museum on May 1 to explore this location.

Benefits

Nothing to report. (Sometimes this is good news!)
Jack Hannon

SSPI 2009 Hall of Fame Honorees

Sincerest congratulations to the following three honorees of SSPI, all well known to the COMARA membership! Special congratulations to COMARA Board member Dr. Denis Curtin! Here are excerpts from the SSPI acknowledgments for all three:

Dr. Denis Curtin
Chief Operating Officer, XTAR

See http://www.comara.org/sent/newslettermay2009.pdf

D.K. Sachdev
President, SpaceTel Consultancy

See http://www.comara.org/sent/newslettermay2009.pdf

Pradman Kaul
Chairman & CEO, Hughes Network Systems

See http://www.comara.org/sent/newslettermay2009.pdf

New Books on Satellite Communications by People We Know

1) Success Stories in Satellite Systems, D.K. Sachdev, Ed. [American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), $69.95]

See http://www.comara.org/sent/newslettermay2009.pdf

2) License to Orbit: The Future of Commercial Space Travel, by Joseph Pelton and Peter Marshall (Apogee Books; $23.95).

See http://www.comara.org/sent/newslettermay2009.pdf

Where Did the Pieces of COMSAT Go?

The Battery Lab - Dr. Hari Vaidyanathan - The Electrochemistry Department (aka Battery Lab) within COMSAT Labs was a pioneer in the satellite industry... In 2007, we constructed a new 8000 square foot lab in the Gateway 270 center just down the street from our old home... See http://www.comara.org/sent/newslettermay2009.pdf

News From Colleagues - Keeping In Touch

See http://www.comara.org/sent/newslettermay2009.pdf for the full text.

Freddi Hamilton - Freddi is working on her Ph.D. at North Carolina State University ...

Marty Votaw - Marty moved to Santa Barbara. ..

Ernest Wallace reports that he is living in Spain.

Roman Ulans - Roman retired in Bucks County in Pennsylvania...

Donald Kron - Finance for Corporate and Comsat Laboratories - I miss the social occasions as I'm in Chicago (Schaumburg)...

Gopal (Jan) Janardanan - We have been in and out with travel...

Dick McClure - continues to work at the Applied Physics Lab of Johns Hopkins University...

Neil Helm - Fonya and I are moving to Virginia Beach, VA...

Bill Callaway - gets together with a small group, George and Lucille Skinner, Dave and Jeanne Ours, in September every year....

Lynn Siguenza's - husband passed on last April '08....

Ed Martin - moved to Gaithersburg.

Ashok Rao - (Labs from 1989-1999) - created a COMSAT alumni group on Linked-In, which is intended for general networking and comments/discussions. Group Page: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1679217 - Since it's start yesterday, it already has 10 members (Linked-In automatically alerts people who have listed COMSAT as one of their companies in their profile.)

Brij Agrawal - Brij Agrawal is starting a new degree program, MS Astronautical Engineering, at Naval Postgraduate School...

Brent Jacocks - continues work in publications production for the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) in Rockville, MD. ...

News from Skipper Vasilis Riginos - sails his boat, S/Y Thetis, a 36-foot Jeanneau sloop. http://www.sy-thetis.org

In Memoriam

May they rest in peace.
We attempt to email death notices and memorial services for all former members of COMSAT and spouses. A list is also maintained on the web site. If you have information to share, please send an email to webmaster@comara.org.

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Please send us information about what you're doing so that we can include it in a future COMARA Newsletter! Best wishes for a great summer 2009!

The COMARA Board of Directors