Satellite News

After completing its one year experimental mission, the U.S. Air Force’s TacSat-2 microsatellite ceased operations on 21 December 2007, according to a statement released today.

Alcatel-Lucent announced that, following the DVB-SH pilot jointly performed by telecommunications operator SFR and Alcatel-Lucent from July to December 2007, both companies validated the fundamental assumptions for the deployment of a DVB-SH network co-localised, for its terrestrial part, with an existing commercial 3G+ network.

Iran plans to spend US$250 million on the construction and launch of a satellite, Fars news agency quoted a Majlis (Iranian parliament) member as saying.

South Korea plans to spend KRW316.4 billion (EUR230 million, US$337 million) on its space programme this year, the government said according to Yonhap news agency.

ONDAS Media announced that it has entered into a commercial volume agreement to install satellite radio receivers in Nissan and Infiniti vehicles across Europe. The launch date of the system, the space segment of which is likely to be built by SS/L, has meanwhile further slipped.

SES Astra has signed further contracts to roll-out its satellite broadband service Astra2Connect also in France and Italy. Nine months after the product launch in April 2007, SES Astra has now closed distribution agreements in seven European countries.

Eutelsat Communications announced a contract for its new Tooway satellite broadband Ka-band service with Swisscom.

Alliant Techsystems said the constellation of five micro satellites it built for NASA’s THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) mission successfully completed its initial Coast Phase science operations.