Up County

Germantown-based Hughes Network Systems announced its JUPITER™ 3 ultra high-density satellite has successfully launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from historic Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A in Florida. Also known as EchoStar XXIV, JUPITER 3 was built by Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, CA, and is engineered to deliver gigabytes of connectivity to customers across North and South America.

On July 29 at 2:32 a.m. EDT, three hours and twenty-eight minutes after lift-off, JUPITER 3 successfully deployed from the launch vehicle. The satellite began sending and receiving its first signals, and engineers deployed the JUPITER 3 solar arrays, which unfolded in space to their full ten-story span. “JUPITER 3 is the highest capacity, highest performing satellite we’ve ever launched. As the leading provider and inventor of satellite internet, we’re proud to herald the start of a new era of connectivity and serve more customers where cable and fiber cannot,” said Hamid Akhavan, CEO, EchoStar. “This purpose-built satellite is engineered uniquely to meet our customers’ needs and target capacity where it’s needed most, such as the most rural regions of the Americas, so they can stay connected to the applications and services they depend on every day.”

The HealthWell Foundation^®, an independent non-profit headquartered at 20440 Century Blvd. in Germantown that provides a financial lifeline for inadequately insured Americans, is proud to announce that it has opened a new fund to provide financial assistance to individuals living with type 2 diabetes. Through the new fund, HealthWell will provide up to $1,000 in medication copayment assistance to eligible patients with annual household incomes up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level for the management of their disease.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes and develops when the cells in the body do not respond well to, or make enough insulin, a hormone produced in the pancreas. If not treated, people with type 2 diabetes will have high blood glucose (blood sugar) levels which, over time, can lead to serious health problems including heart disease, stroke, blindness, and kidney failure. Over 37 million people in the U.S. have diabetes and type 2 diabetes accounts for approximately 90-95% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes in the U.S.