Satellite News

SES Astra announced that it has started to transmit the “Europe by Satellite” service, a multilingual TV news service from the European Commission.

Boeing has successfully completed a Critical Design Review (CDR) of its family of Advanced Beyond line-of-sight Terminals (FAB-T) programme, helping to pave the way for deliveries to begin.

A newly-formed subsidiary of SkyPort International (USA)has signed a letter of intent to purchase RAMTelecom Inc. (Canada), a transaction that will significantly increase SkyPort’s capability to serve customers throughout North America with a range of satellite communications services.

SES Americom said it conducted its last operations on the SATCOM C-4 satellite, safely de-orbiting the satellite more than 250 km beyond the geosynchronous orbital belt.

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) successfully completed critical design review, giving Northrop Grumman Corporation the green-light to complete building flight hardware for the mission.

The U.S. Air Force has awarded a US$49.5 million contract to Boeing Co. for one Delta II launch vehicle in standard 7925-9.5 configuration to launch the final GPS IIR satellite.

The Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is preparing for this year’s first launch of a Proton-M launch vehicle.

Another Sea Launch customer has switched launch vehicles in the wake of the Zenit 3-SL explosion in January: an Ariane 5 launch vehicle will deliver Spaceway 3 to Geostationary Transfer Orbit from Europe’s Spaceport at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, in August of 2007.