Pinoys write book on satellite industry

A Filipino and a Filipino-Am have co-authored the first book by Filipinos about the commercial satellite industry and its indispensability in today’s wireless world.

The book, "Heavens Fill With Commerce: A Brief History of the Communications Satellite Industry," by Virgil Labrador and Peter Galace is a well-illustrated, easy-to-read book that chronicles the industry since Arthur Clark’s visionary writings in the 1940s.

It talks about the rise of satcos (satellite companies) such as Intelsat and MabuhaySat, satellite services like DTH (direct-to-home) broadcasting and the evolution of satellites into core drivers of the Internet and wireless technology.

MabuhaySat or Mabuhay Philippines Satellite Corp. is the country’s only satco and is a subsidiary of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. It operates Agila-1, the country’s only in-orbit satellite. Intelsat is the world’s largest satco.

Published in the US by Satnews Publishers, the 216-page book was launched recently in Los Angeles, California. A Philippine book launch is planned.

Labrador and Galace head the editorial team of Satnews Weekly Online (www.satnews.com), a popular website that reports about current events in the global satellite industry.

Galace is the website’s associate editor, while Labrador, a Fil-Am based in Sonoma, California, is its editor. Both men have over a decade of experience in reporting about the global satellite industry.

"The book is an easy-to-understand, non-tech look at this vital industry," said Galace, who also heads Thinc Multimedia, a specialist research and marketing communications firm with clients in telecoms and healthcare.

"It took us a few years and a lot of sweat to make this book. We’re proud that two Filipinos were among the first to publish a book about this key industry," he said.

Included in the book is the full text of Clark’s landmark article, "Extra Terrestrial Relays," in which he broached the idea of space-orbiting satellites as telecommunications devices.

The book is available at http://www.satnews.com/products/historybook.htm.