Satellite News

The U.S. Air Force has exercised an option for a sixth Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite and has authorised Boeing to begin construction.

The long-delayed Japanese GX rocket project has run into new trouble, the Yomiuri Shimbun reports.

Arianespace published the orbital data of the RASCOM-QAF1/Horizons-2 launch, and summed up its 2007 launch statistics.

Rocket: Soyuz-U; Payload:Progress M-62 (Progress P27); Date: 23 December 2007, 0712 UTC; Site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The Progress cargo spacecraft was accurately placed on the target orbit for another mission to the International Space Station.

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. has been selected by Mexico’s Grupo Elektra to provide a SkyEdge satellite hub station and 1,964 VSATs for use in several Latin American countries including Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, El Salvador, Panama and Argentina.

SkyTerra Communications, Inc., Inmarsat plc, Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) and Mobile Satellite Ventures (Canada) Inc. (MSV Canada) announced that the companies have reached a comprehensive co-operative agreement for L-band operations in North America.

NASA announced that the next mission in the Mars Scout programme, originally planned for launch in 2011, is now targeted for launch in 2013.

NASA has awarded a contract to Boeing Satellite Systems for two satellites that will replenish the NASA communication relay network, which provides telecommunications links between low Earth orbiting spacecraft and the ground.