Satellite News

Talks between BCE and potentials buyers of the company’s Telesat subsidiary have broken down, the Globe and Mail reports. BCE is now pressing ahead with an initial public offering, according to the report.

DirecTV has apparently silently put its DirecTV 6 satellite into graveyard orbit, tracking data show.

L-3 Communications announced that its Telemetry-West (L-3 Telemetry-West) division has been awarded a US$9.9 million contract by the U.S. Air Force to provide the next-generation, crypto-modernisation-compliant encryptor and decryptor for satellite telemetry, tracking and control (TT&C).

Russia’s 24-satellite navigational and global positioning system, GLONASS, will be fully deployed by 2010, the country’s defence ministry said. This is one year later than previously announced.

Russia plans to orbit at least 30 telecom satellites and launch probes to Mars and Venus under the federal space programme (FSP) for 2006-2015, according to Vitaly Davydov, deputy head of the Russian Space Agency.

Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Space Technology sector has been recertified as meeting Level 5 standards for software development set by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) for Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI).

China will strengthen co-operation with the international community in the space industry, said Jin Zhuanglong, deputy director of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and U.S. Air Force (USAF) Space Command have issued new common federal launch safety standards designed to create consistent, integrated space launch rules for the U.S.