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AeroAstro Signs First Two Direct Resellers For
SENS Global Asset Tracking and Logistics Management Services
Ashburn,
VA – June 28th, 2002
AeroAstro,
Inc. today announced the commencement of marketing and distribution
agreements with the first two Value Added Resellers (VARs)
for AeroAstro’s Satellite Enabled Notification System
(SENS) and the first sales of SENS Transmitter Units (STUs).
Under the agreement, Offshore Warriors of Gulfport, Mississippi
and Aerotec of Bessemer, Alabama will develop, market, and
sell application-specific STUs for the oil, gas, and electrical
utility industries. SENS, a global low-cost asset tracking
and logistics management service, transmits data via the Globalstar
network of low-Earth orbiting satellites and will begin service
in the fourth quarter of this year.
AeroAstro
is in discussions with additional VARs to develop and market
STUs for other applications, including container and vehicle
tracking. SENS is the first product to fully address the tracking
needs of the container and vehicle industry, providing universal
coverage and ease of installation at a low per-unit cost.
Aerotec’s
key businesses include monitoring power transmission lines
for utility companies. Aerotec will use the SENS system to
offer a service for real-time load monitoring and security
for power transmission infrastructure. This will enable the
utilities to better manage power load flow and deter threats
to the power infrastructure, as well as meet new federal guidelines
intended to mitigate the risk of brown-outs.
Jim
Dow, CEO of Aerotec LLC, said, “Using SENS technology,
electric power transmission operators will be able to extend
their monitoring activities to remote areas that lack adequate
telecommunication capability.”
Offshore
Warriors, a leading provider of material and personnel management
to the oil and gas industry, will use AeroAstro’s SENS
system for tracking and monitoring of offshore equipment.
The ability to retrieve data from offshore equipment will
help prevent equipment losses and enable remote monitoring
of operations. Aubrey Shoemake, President of Offshore Warriors
said, “Our customers operating in the Gulf of Mexico
welcome the ability to locate equipment that is used in offshore
drilling and production operations.”
Mark
Ludwig, Executive Vice President of AeroAstro, said, “The
addition of Offshore Warriors and Aerotec as VARs is the first
of many successes as users begin to see the value SENS offers
by being able to acquire data from remote or inaccessible
locations. Nothing is out of reach anymore.”
The
agreement gives the VARs the right to integrate SENS with
their own sensors, packaging, and power sources to produce
integrated, market specific products. AeroAstro will limit
the number of VARs in each market, but the VARs will have
no geographic restrictions within their market. Additionally,
as part of the agreement, the first lots of STU Transmitter
Units will be used by the VARs to initialize and demonstrate
service during the start-up phases. These STUs will be among
the first to provide service over the Globalstar system within
these markets.
SENS
is a tiny, inexpensive, one-way communications system which
can reliably and simply send location and status information
from remote locations to the Internet for customer retrieval.
Data is transferred via the Globalstar constellation of low-Earth
orbiting satellites, under a partnership between AeroAstro
and Globalstar L.P. SENS is the most cost effective way to
track and monitor fixed or mobile remote assets. A variety
of VARs are signing up with AeroAstro to develop and implement
industry-specific applications that use SENS technology to
collect and transmit data from distributed sensors.
AeroAstro,
a pioneer of micro and nanospacecraft applications in science,
remote sensing, and communications, is a leader in innovative
small-satellite applications that open the space frontier
to a larger and more varied constituency. AeroAstro is again
leading the way with the development of the Satellite Enabled
Notification System (SENS). NASA, the Air Force, and commercial
and university customers have all employed AeroAstro throughout
its 14-year history.
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