Satellite News

A United Launch Alliance Delta II is scheduled to launch COSMO-SkyMed 3 for Boeing Launch Services and Thales Alenia Space on 25 October at 0228 UTC with a one second launch window from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), as the prime contractor, will be responsible for the design, manufacture, assembly, test and launch of Pakistan’s PakSat-1R satellite, with its subcontractors for satellite, launch vehicle, and launch operations.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. announced that its Montreal operation has signed a contract in excess of C$10 million with EADS Astrium to provide an information solution for the Alphasat I-XL mission to augment its Broadband Global Area Network service for telephone and Internet.

Qualification testing of single board computer (SBC) engineering models for one of the most powerful computing systems ever flown in space has been completed by Northrop Grumman Corporation with subcontractor Maxwell Technologies.

U.S. Congress has cancelled Defense Department plans to buy and launch two commercial imagery satellites that were to form the Broad Area Space-Based Imagery Collection satellite system (BASIC). In related news, the Pentagon denied it had delayed the competition between Lockheed Martin and Boeing for the TSAT programme but said it would still be reviewing it.

Lockheed Martin Corporation reported third quarter 2008 financial results.

SpaceDev, Inc. announced that it has signed an agreement to be acquired by privately-held Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC).