Satellite News

PBLSat, a provider of in occasional use satellite services, announced the confirmation of long-term contracts for capacity on two satellites operated by Eutelsat Communications.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is in the midst of integration and testing at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the agency said.

KazSat 1, the first Kazakh communications satellite, suffered a glitch in its control system on 9 January, resulting in an outage of several hours.

Images sent by Japan’s ALOS “Daichi” satellite are “useless” for mapping purposes because of problems with the spacecraft, the Yomiuri Shimbun reports.

“[I]n 2007, we orbited no less than three satellites originally planned for competitors’ launchers, but which simply were not available when they had been promised. As one U.S. client told us, at Arianespace, ‘launches speak louder than words,’ while other players in the industry ‘take the money and run.’” – Jean-Yves Le Gall, Arianespace CEO

Japanese private equity firm Unison Capital is set to invest about US$50 million in Intelsat Ltd to help it expand in Asia, financial sources reportedly said.

Alliant Techsystems (ATK) has negotiated definitive agreements with MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates to acquire its Information Systems and Geospatial Information Services businesses for C$1.325 billion (currently US$1.312 billion).

Orbcomm Inc. announced net additions of more than 126,000 billable subscriber communicators for 2007, within the range of its full year guidance.