Satellite News

The Canadian government has appointed former Telesat executive Laurier (Larry) J. Boisvert as President of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

SES Americom announced Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS) has signed a multi-year agreement for two additional transponders aboard the AMC-3 and AMC-5 satellites to deliver CNN news gathering and special events programming.

Raytheon Company has been awarded an US$84.6 million contract to produce upgrade kits for its Secure Mobile Anti-jam Reliable Tactical Terminal, or SMART-T, for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, and Canada and the Netherlands.

Raytheon Company received approval of its environmental assessment from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for precision placement of two National Polar-orbiting Operational Environment Satellite System (NPOESS) Safety Net data-receipt antennas at the McMurdo Bay research station in Antarctica.

The drafting of Ukraine’s new space programme until 2012 has been completed. It envisages the production and launch of a Ukrainian telecommunications satellite, and also of the next-generation Earth observation satellites Sich-2 and Sich-3.

Northrop Grumman Corporation has been selected by the U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center for a contract worth up to US$21.9 million for the Alternative Infrared Satellite System (AIRSS) Program Research and Development Announcement (PRDA) effort.

Almost all the components have been assembled onto NASA’s Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), which will undergo a review this week before environmental testing begins at the primary contractor, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems.

China has for the first time admitted that its Beidou 1D (or Beidou 2A) satellite developed a problem shortly after launch on 3 February but said the malfunction has now been fixed.