Satellite News

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted Loral and its Canadian partner, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), the final required regulatory approval necessary for the closing of the Telesat acquisition.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. has won an approximately C$65 million (EUR47 million, US$66 million) contract from Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) to deliver an information solution called SAPPHIRE for the surveillance of space objects.

Japan has successfully put its recently launched moon probe Kaguya into lunar orbit. The spacecraft, also known as SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer), was placed in a highly elliptical 101 km x 11,741 km orbit as planned.

Proton launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, suspended following the Proton crash on 6 September, can be resumed when Kazakhstan damages claims are met, a Kazakh emergencies spokesman said.

Rocket: Ariane 5GS; Payload: Intelsat 11, Optus D2; Date: 5 October 2007, 2205 UTC; Site: Kourou, French Guiana. After a brief delay, the rocket placed the two Orbital-built satellites in geostationary transfer orbit.