Arqiva Signs U.S. Teleport Deal

Arqiva signed a co-location agreement with U.S. teleport operator USEI.

The deal will enable USEI to access Arqiva’s occasional-use infrastructure to support United Kingdom downlinks and uplinks to their facilities in the United States and Japan.
 

Ball Aerospace To Build NASA, NOAA JPSS-1 Satellite

NASA and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded a sole source contract to Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. to design, build and test the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1).

The $248 million fixed-price contract runs through February 2015. NOAA will be responsible managing the JPSS program, with NASA acting as the program’s procurement agent.

Ball will be responsible for integrating government-furnished instruments on the JPSS-1 satellite and its launch vehicle, while supporting launch operations and on-orbit checkout. The spacecraft, which constitutes the restructured civilian portion of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), is scheduled to reach orbit in 2014.
 

Boeing Contracted to Develop Lightweight SolarEagle UAV

The U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded an $89.3 million contract to Boeing for the development of a light, unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) as part of the Vulture 2 program.

The Vulture program aims to produce a high-altitude satellite surveillance aircraft with features including solar energy collection and storage, reliability and flight control. The aircraft has been named SolarEagle and is expected to make its first demonstration flight in February 2014.

Boeing will develop SolarEagle’s full-scale flight demonstrator, including maturation of the critical power system and structures technologies. Suppliers for the program include Versa Power Systems and QinetiQ.
 

O3b Wins Contract with Pak Datacom

O3b Networks signed a multi-million dollar agreement with Pak Datacom to become the exclusive supplier of O3b services to the Pakistani market.

The agreement aims to provide national and international satellite capacity to all borders of Pakistan.
 

SES Extends Multi-Launch Deal with ILS

SES extended its multi-launch agreement with International Launch Services (ILS), adding a sixth firm ILS Proton mission likely to take place in 2014.

The first mission under the agreement was ab ILS Proton launch in April that placed SES-1 in orbit. Launches slated for 2011 and 2012 will carry the SES-3, SES-4, QuetzSat-1 and SES-5/Astra 4B satellites. The remaining three missions will be assigned as needed and, in principle, cover the 2012–2014 time frame. In addition, Proton will provide back-up launch capability for SES missions in 2011.