Finance

Welcome to the 28th SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition. This year’s theme “Solutions Start Here,” could not be more appropriate for today’s communications world, where customers do not want to create their own communications networks from scratch and instead are seeking complete solutions from their providers. The pre-day schedule will help kickoff SATELLITE 2009 with a...

SATELLITE 2009 opens following a busy 12 months. The sector has seen the emergence of new players, new business models and new opportunities — all coming against the backdrop of the greatest global economic crisis in decades. Industry analysts Patrick French, Claude Rousseau and Carlos Placido of NSR; Near Earth CEO Hoyt Davidson; Andrea Maleter,...

Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) will add a government payload to Sirius 5, a satellite for SES (Euronext Paris:SESG) (Luxembourg Stock Exchange:SESG), currently under construction at the spacecraft manufacturing facility in California. In addition to the primary payloads which will provide high performance coverage for Direct-to-Home broadcasting, broadband, point-to-point, and VSAT services in Europe and Africa, Sirius...

Orbital Sciences Corp. [ORB] will buy back $50 million more of its stock, adding to an earlier $50 million repurchase, the company announced. The move comes after an Orbital Taurus XL rocket failed to lift a NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite to space because a nosecone fairing protecting the satellite failed to separate. (Please see...

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, conducted a full mission duration firing of its new Merlin Vacuum engine, the company announced. That test, at the SpaceX Test Facility in McGregor, Texas, saw the engine fire for six minutes, consuming 100,000 pounds of liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene propellant. The new engine, which powers the...

[Satellite News 02-25-09] AsiaSat has backed out of a launch contract with Sea Launch,  moving its AsiaSat-5 satellite because Sea Launch could not provide the customer with a desirable timeframe, Sea Launch spokeswoman Paula Korn told Satellite News.     “It didn’t surprise us,” said Korn. “We had been working and talking to AsiaSat for a...

A mobile gantry performed its initial rollout test at the Spaceport in French Guiana, South America, Arianespace announced. The launch site and mobile gantry for the Arianespace Vega lightweight vehicle are part of the infrastructure at the Spaceport ELA-1 launch site, which had been used in the past for missions with Ariane 1 and 3...

A Proton-M rocket with Breez-M accelerator launched the Express-AM44 and Express-MD1 satellites. The RSCC satellite mission control then took control of the satellites. At present RSCC via its terrestrial facilities controls AM44 and MD1 movement to geostationary orbit at 11 degrees West and 80 degrees East orbital slots respectively. The satellites are manufactured within the...

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) donated experimental payload space aboard an upcoming flight of the Dragon spacecraft to support the Heinlein Trust Microgravity Research Competition. The winner’s experimental payload will remain in the microgravity environment for an extended period of time before returning to Earth. Historically, these opportunities have been limited by availability on Shuttle,...

Arianespace captured 72 percent of orders booked last year, and half of all commercial launches to geostationary orbit, according to Arianespace chairman and CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall, speaking to journalists. There will be six to eight missions of the heavy lifter Ariane 5 this year, Le Gall estimated. As well, Arianespace plans this year to...