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France’s Caisse des D�pots et Consignations will acquire a 25.5 percent stake in Eutelsat from French investment firm Eurazeo, the companies announced Dec. 7. This is the second major transfer of Eutelsat stock announced this week. Caisse des D�pots, a state-owned financial institution that performs public interest missions on behalf of France’s central, regional and...

Dominion Video Satellite Inc. has signed an agreement to offer HughesNet high-speed satellite Internet service, Hughes Network Systems LLC announced. Dominion provides the Sky Angel service, which delivers more than 30 Christian inspirational, family and TV and radio channels to homes and churches throughout the continental United States.

Northrop Grumman Corp. has been awarded a 14-month, $8.4 million phase-two study contract by the U.S. Air Force for further work on the Enhanced Polar System (EPS) satellite communications program, the company announced. The study is designed to assist the Air Force in defining a payload for next-generation polar military satellite communications. Under the $1.5...

Orbital Sciences Corp. has formed a partnership with Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology of Alexandria, Va., to develop a small satellite that will be built entirely by high school students, Orbital announced Dec. 6. The mission for TJ-Sat will be determined by the students, who will be responsible for design and integration...

Space Communications Ltd. has sold more than 50 percent of the total capacity on its Amos-3 satellite, which is slated for launch in the third quarter of 2007, the company announced. Some existing and new customers on Amos-1 and Amos-2, including government users and direct-to-home platforms Yes of Israel and Romania’s Boom, will transition some...

Quake Global announced Dec. 6 that Volvo Trucks North America will install Quake Global’s Q2000+ satellite communicator as standard equipment in all Volvo trucks manufactured with US’07 engines. The Q2000+ and the Volvo Link Sentry remote performance monitoring system have been standard equipment since late 2005 on the Volvo VT 880 and VT 830 tractors.

SAT Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Integral Systems Inc., will provide a carrier monitoring and interference detection system to SES Sirius for the company’s Stockholm teleport, SAT announced. The SAT-DSA allows users to automatically detect, characterize and display interfering signals as well as support remote user access and carrier lineup activities. SAT has provided...

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. has been selected by Alef Soluciones Integrales and Corporative Lanix to provide a Skyedge VSAT network to more than 7,700 Mexican public-school classrooms, Gilat announced Dec. 4. Deployment of the network hub and 4,400 terminals has begun in the middle-school phase of the Mexican Ministry of Education’s computer-based Enciclomedia program, which...

Emerging Markets Communications (EMC) has been contracted to provide Internet protocol (IP) capacity via satellite to South Africa-based Internet Solutions, EMC announced. Internet Solutions, owned by Dimension Data, is the largest Cisco distributor outside the United States and offers services to about 80 percent of South Africa’s top 250 companies. EMC will provide a link...

XM Satellite Radio and General Motors (GM) announced Dec. 5 that the automaker will build more than 1.8 million 2007 vehicles with factory-installed XM Radio. GM was the first automaker to offer satellite radio when it introduced XM as a factory-installed feature on its Cadillac Seville and Deville models in 2001.